Baggage waits to be claimed at the Southwest Airlines baggage claim Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, at Salt Lake City International Airport, in Salt Lake City. Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was by far the most affected. Of the 2,890 flight cancellations in the U.S. early Tuesday, 2,522 were called off by Southwest, according to the tracking website FlightAware. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the U.S., and the federal government said it would investigate why the company lagged so far behind other carriers. A day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the storm, Southwest called off 2,500 more flights on the East Coast by midday Tuesday. The FlightAware tracking service reported that those flights accounted for more than 80 percent of the 3,000 trips that got canceled nationwide Tuesday. The chaos seemed certain to continue. The airline also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,000 for Thursday.