Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton says Congress must hold hearings so Southwest Airlines’ executives can explain two episodes of flight cancellations within 14 months.

The latest is happening this week as travelers who counted on Southwest Airlines to get them home from the holiday weekend suffered through another wave of canceled flights Wednesday and Thursday.

And pressure has grown on the federal government to help customers get reimbursed for unexpected expenses incurred because of the airline’s meltdown.

Stanton and Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democrats who represent a significant segment of Phoenix and the East Valley, are among the first to demand answers.

“Twice now over just 14 months, Southwest’s negligence has forced it to cancel an extraordinary number of flights and leave tens of thousands of passengers stranded without answers,” Stanton said.

“It’s apparent failure to adequately prepare for or respond to foreseeable circumstances has created a paralyzing system-wide collapse.

"Southwest’s leadership, including CEO Robert Jordan, must explain to the American people and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee why it has failed to invest in its IT infrastructure, adequately staff airline operations or to learn hard lessons from past challenges.”

In October 2021, Southwest was forced to cancel thousands of flights over a four-day period — blaming a combination of bad weather, a brief problem with air traffic control in the Florida area and a lack of available staff to adjust to those problems, according to Stanton.

The congressman is the only member of the Arizona congressional delegation to serve on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where he also serves on the Aviation Subcommittee.

Earlier in the week, Gallego wrote an open letter to Jordan about the “severe emotional and financial impacts Arizonans have faced” because of the cancellations.

The letter asked Jordan to answer a list of questions, mainly asking him to commit to whether Southwest customers will be offered refunds both for their flights and for other expenses, such as staying extra nights in a hotel or renting cars to drive instead of fly.

“For thousands of Arizonans the past few days have been a nightmare,” Gallego stated. “And at a time when rising costs hurt hardworking Arizonans, constituents tell me they now face hundreds of dollars in added expenses — such as hotels and car rentals — due to Southwest’s cancelations.”

In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.”

Jordan blamed the winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down” on upgrading systems to avoid a repeat of this week.

“We have some real work to do in making this right,” said Jordan, a 34-year Southwest veteran who became CEO in February. “For now, I want you to know that we are committed to that.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said that “meltdown” was the only word he could think of to describe this week’s events at Southwest.

He noted that while cancellations across the rest of the industry declined to about 4% of scheduled flights, they remained above 60% at Southwest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.