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 Southwest, airline pilots union deny claims that anti-vaccine walkouts prompted cancellations (red.)

Southwest Airlines cancelled more than 2000 flights between Friday and Sunday

By

 André Orban

11 October 2021

Southwest Airlines had to cancel 1,800 flights last weekend. That would have to do with bad weather, but also with staff shortages.

On Sunday, the world’s largest low-cost carrier cancelled at least 1,000 flights, 30 percent of its scheduled flights, after it had already had to cancel 800 flights on Saturday. the disruption continued into Monday, a federal holiday, with 337 flights cancelled so far.

The company blamed the cancellations on air traffic control problems and limited staffing in Florida, as well as bad weather. However, In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said there have been no air traffic-related cancellations since Friday.

Last week, the airline announced a vaccine mandate for employees. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) wanted to take action because it disagrees with US President Biden’s Covid measures (mandatory vaccination or getting tested).

However, the union also says it is aware of the operational problems at the company. It denied that union measures were the cause of the cancellations. Pilots have not taken part in official or unofficial actions, according to the union.

 

DOT to audit FAA staffing challenges after Southwest Airlines chaos Southwest Airlines has blamed cancellation issues on weather and staffing problems. The federal Department of Transportation’s inspector general will audit hiring and staffing challenges at the Federal Aviation Administration after Southwest Airlines blamed mass cancellations over the weekend on a shortage of air traffic controllers. Matthew Hampton, assistant inspector general for aviation audits, issued a memo Tuesday announcing the audit, which he said would “assist FAA’s efforts” to keep air traffic control fully staffed and continue training new hires amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Since the pandemic started, controllers at numerous air traffic control facilities have tested positive for COVID-19, leading to partial shutdowns of towers and radar control facilities and impacting staffing and training operations,” the memo said. “Moreover, with veteran controllers leaving for various reasons, including retirements, and increased training demands, FAA faces the challenge of ensuring it has the required number of controllers.” IG reports in 2012 and 2016 documented ongoing staffing challenges, the memo said. The 2016 audit found the FAA “had not yet established an effective process for balancing training requirements with pending retirements.” Southwest Airlines blamed the thousands of canceled flights on air traffic staffing shortages, but the FAA has denied there being any shortages since Friday, when it admits that there were a “few hours” of delays due in part to staffing issues. Airline industry expert Arthur Wheaton of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations said the US DOT audit had been a long time coming. “Our air traffic control system is woefully out of date. They haven’t really invested in that system in decades,” said Wheaton. “There have been issues with our skies — having too many planes and not enough computer capacity to route them for 40 years … It makes it more dangerous and more difficult to manage.” Southwest, its union and the FAA have all denied any connections between the weekend’s chaos and President Biden’s forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine requirement for airline employees. The airline’s CEO on Tuesday told CNBC his airline was “significantly set back on Friday.” “When you get behind, it just takes several days to catch up,” CEO Gary Kelly said.