Other airlines like Delta fly hub and spoke. For example, when I want to fly somewhere on Delta I take a short flight to ATL and then go from there. That flight from my town to ATL happens 5-6x/day. If my town has bad weather, it's mostly only that flight that is impacted.
SW does point to point flows. A SW flight might only leave from my town once/day on its way to the next stop and then another. If we have bad weather, all the stops down the line are impacted.
Planes are also not the only issue. Crews have strict rules about how much downtime they have to have, so any delays can mean crews run out of flight time.
SW does point to point flows. A SW flight might only leave from my town once/day on its way to the next stop and then another. If we have bad weather, all the stops down the line are impacted.
Planes are also not the only issue. Crews have strict rules about how much downtime they have to have, so any delays can mean crews run out of flight time.
Airline scheduling is complicated.