More Southwest Airlines flight disruptions follow a weekend of cancellations
“…Southwest Airlines travelers are facing another day of disruptions. The carrier suspended hundreds of additional flights on Monday, after canceling and delaying thousands over the weekend — reportedly due to air traffic control issues and weather.
The airline has canceled more than 355 flights and delayed another 581 as of Monday morning, according to the online tracker FlightAware. Those canceled flights make up 10% of its schedule, as compared to 30% on Sunday…
…The reason for the disruption depends on who you ask.
Southwest blamed air traffic control issues and disruptive weather in a statement issued Sunday.
That same day, however, the Federal Aviation Administration said that no FAA air traffic staffing shortages had been reported since Friday.
“Flight delays & cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday PM due to widespread severe weather, military training, & limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville en route center,” it tweeted. “Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.”
Henry Harteveldt, president and travel industry analyst at The Atmosphere Research Group, suggested two other possibilities to the Associated Press over the weekend. One is that Southwest scheduled more flights than it can handle, and operates a “point-to-point route network” that gives each delay a considerable ripple effect.
He also suggested that some pilots are calling in sick or refusing to work in opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate that Southwest announced earlier this month. Southwest executives and employees have denied that, even though the theory has been embraced by prominent conservatives including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said on Sunday that “there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise.”
It disputed the carrier’s characterization of the reason for the weekend’s disruptions…”