Two dozen Southwest flights cancelled out of Orlando International Airport

About two dozen Southwest Airlines flights in and out of Orlando International Airport were canceled Monday as the airline continued engine inspections after last week’s deadly in-flight accident.

Following the accident, the airline announced plans to “voluntarily accelerate inspections of CFM engine fan blades throughout our entire Boeing 737-700/-800 Fleet.” The inspections are expected to take place over a 30-day period.

An airline spokesperson could not give The News Station any specific information about how many Orlando flights would be canceled each day, but said that passengers could expected fewer than 1% of 4,000 scheduled daily flights to be affected daily.

Despite the disaster, in which an engine blew up  and one person was killed, passengers at OIA told the news station they were boarding with confidence, even as the safety checks are ongoing.    

“Southwest has always been good about touching base with their customers—we feel anyway.  They’re up front.  They don’t seem like their hiding anything,” said Steve Howland, who was flying to Chicago with his family.  

“Things happen and I feel like they’re probably taking whatever actions necessary to keep us safe,” said Steve Leonard, a passenger on a Southwest flight to Baltimore.