Southwest cancels thousands of flights nationwide

Southwest Airlines has canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend, blaming the woes on air traffic control issues and disruptive weather.

The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights, or 28% of its schedule, as of 2 p.m ET (1800 GMT) Sunday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

But the cancellations mark the highest rate by far of other major U.S. airlines.

The next in line are Allegiant and Spirit, both of which have canceled 5% and 4% of its flights respectively on Sunday, according to the flight tracker.

American Airlines cancelled 2% of its flights.

Southwest couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but took to Twitter on Saturday.

"TC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation, " the airline said on its Twitter account.

"We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected customers, and customer service wait times are longer than usual."