Southwest Airlines Flight Cancellations: Is that Because of Weather or Labor Disputes?

[WestCanMan]

There have been about 2,000 flight cancellations for Southwest Airlines so far this weekend. 1,000 of them today.

Southwest blames Air Traffic Control "issues" and bad weather, but other airlines seem unaffected by either. Southwest's cancellations add up to 28% of their flights, but American Airlines has only had to cancel 2%.

All that I could find re: the weather issue is that apparently there was some disruption in services on Friday in Florida. It's possible that Southwest just couldn't get all of their ducks in a row and there is a cascading failure due to pilots and planes being out of sync, but that's unlikely considering that there have been much larger weather events in the past which didn't result in nearly as much chaos.

Other sources say that the Southwest Pilot's Association just filed a lawsuit on Friday to push back on vaxx mandates, and this might be the result of job action: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/southwest-flights-cancellations-covid-vaccine-b1935866.html 

The pilot's own union said that's not the case: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/southwest-cancels-more-than-a-thousand-flights-cites-air-traffic-control-issues

Quote

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, which filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the airline's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, issued a statement clarifying that it had no connection to the cancellations and delays.

"SWAPA is aware of operational difficulties affecting Southwest Airlines today due to a number of issues, but we can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions," the organization said in a statement Saturday. "Our Pilots will continue to overcome SWA management’s poor planning, as well as any external operational challenges, and remain the most productive Pilots in the world."

?

 

FWIW, the MSM is acknowledging that job action due to vaxx mandates is a concern for staffing in hospitals: 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/canadas-overworked-healthcare-sector-brace-staff-shortages-vaccine-mandates-loom-2021-10-10/

Quote

Quebec is offering C$15,000 bonuses to help attract and retain about 4,300 full-time nurses. Some 25,000 healthcare workers who are yet not fully vaccinated ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline risk suspension without pay, said Christian Dubé, the province's health minister.

Hundreds of Ontario workers in hospitals and long-term care could be off the job in the coming weeks because they did not get vaccinated against COVID-19, further complicating what advocates call a “perfect storm” of staff shortages.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/27/1041047608/vaccine-deadlines-hospitals-fear-staffing-shortages

Quote

Some New York hospitals prepared contingency plans that included cutting back on noncritical services and limiting nursing home admissions. The governor also drew up plans to summon help from National Guard members with medical training, retirees or vaccinated workers from outside the state.

It doesn't seem like the medical layoffs will be on a large scale though.

[Cannucklehead]

Idk what the deal is with sw.  Only thing I saw in the news was the solar flare thats happening right now so maybe they were just being extra careful?  

[Aristides]

Didn't look very hard.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/inclement-weather-across-florida-causing-delays-at-airports/

[Infidel Dog]

Solar flares and bad weather then. Is that what's causing all these upcoming cuts to medical staff in Quebec, Ontario and New York too? 

[WestCanMan]

16 hours ago, Aristides said:

Didn't look very hard.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/inclement-weather-across-florida-causing-delays-at-airports/

I did mention that there was some inclement weather, on one day, in one of America's 50 states, causing 'delays', but Southwest cancelled 28% of their flights, over three days. American Airlines only had to cancel 2% of their flights.

[taxme]

21 hours ago, Aristides said:

Didn't look very hard.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/inclement-weather-across-florida-causing-delays-at-airports/

Man, do you ever get a thrill from pushing the lies of Southwest airlines and the lying media. Job action by several thousands of Southwest employees is the real reason why there were so many cancellations by Southwest. I am surprised that the lying media did not say that all of those cancelled flights were all due to a break out of covid at the airports once again. The lying and fake media love to use covid as an excuse for everything bad that is happening in the world. ?

 

 

[WestCanMan]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:15 PM, taxme said:

Job action 

Exactly.

[babetteteets]

Wow, it sounds like Southwest is having a rough weekend! It's hard to tell what the cause is at this point, but it's a good reminder to always check the flight status before heading to the airport. If you need to get somewhere quickly, you can always book private jet charter flights. I hope Southwest is able to get to the bottom of it soon, and that everyone affected is able to get where they need to go. In the meantime, stay safe and happy travels!

Edited February 17, 2023 by babetteteets