Southwest Airlines Continues To Cancel Majority of Flights, CEO Speaks Out

It's lookin' like hell on Earth this holiday season for Southwest passengers, and cancelations still aren't easing up -- but it looks like the CEO is hoping to encourage his employees to get the job done during this nightmare.

The Dallas-based air transport company nixed another 2,500 flights Tuesday, according to CNBC ... or roughly 63% of its flights. For those unaware, Southwest also killed 70% the day before.

CEO Bob Jordan reportedly sent a message to his employees after customers were getting stranded at airports ... saying, "We’ve got to get out of this. We’ve got to get to the point where we’re reliable and we get our Customers, our Crews, our aircraft, everything on track."

Southwest is gunning to fly on a third of its schedule throughout the week -- with the goal of simply getting planes and crews where they're needed. Jordan says, however, "Obviously that will have even more impact on our Customers."

The company says it'll "honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation,” according to its website ... as long as passengers can provide a receipt to match.

FYI -- the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an investigation into Southwest Monday ... saying it's going to look into the "unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service."