NEW YORK (WABC) – Southwest Airlines’ cancellations continued on Monday after the airline canceled more than 1,000 flights on Sunday. They blame the massive nationwide disruptions for weather and air traffic control problems in Florida two days earlier.
The airline canceled 300 flights on Monday morning, around 10 times as many as the next big American airline. Even that is a significant improvement over the operational meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers over the weekend.
Flight tracking website FlightAware.com reveals that Southwest canceled 28% of its flights on Sunday, while 600 others faced delays. More than 800 Southwest flights were canceled and more than 1,100 flights were delayed on Saturday, according to FlightAware.
For comparison, American Airlines has the second most frequent cancellations on Sunday at 142 or 4% from 4:30 p.m. ET.
The colossal travel hiccups come amid a busy time for airlines – Monday is a federal holiday, which means millions of American workers have a three-day weekend. More than 2.1 million people were screened at the airport security checkpoints Friday, an amount the Transportation Security Administration says has not been seen since early August.
Videos and pictures posted on social media show Southwest customers waiting in long lines that meander through airports in Denver, New York, Missouri, and Arizona. Travelers in Chicago, Houston and other major US cities reported similar turmoil.
“Hey @SouthwestAir … I’m going to miss my friends wedding because of you,” one person tweeted.
Southwest’s answer
“We experienced weather challenges at our Florida airports early in the weekend, challenges compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region that resulted in delays and significant cancellations for us from Friday night. We have continued to work hard the entire time. ” over the weekend to reposition our operations with a focus on repositioning aircraft and crews to take care of our customers.
“With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovery during operational challenges will be more difficult and longer.
“We are working flat out to meet our customers as quickly as possible and are grateful for their patience. We’re giving our customers additional flexibility to explore self-service rebooking options on Southwest.com where they can find out their status. We know flight cancellations are frustrating for our customers and employees, and we apologize and thank everyone again for the patience while we work firstly to be safe and secondly to be as quick as possible in solving interrupted plans. “
MORE: Southwest employees must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 to retain their jobs, the company says
Anti-vaccine “work slowdown” could be a catalyst for cancellations, says an analyst
Henry H. Harteveldt, president and travel industry analyst for the San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, points out other reasons for the cancellations.
First, he says Southwest has planned more flights than it can handle, an issue that began in June. He also noted that Southwest operates what is known as a point-to-point route network, and when a delay occurs, it “cascades” along the remaining flight segments. This is because, for example, a Southwest flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the airline’s home airport in Dallas can make multiple stops.
However, Harteveldt told The Associated Press that the most troubling reason is the likelihood that some pilots who oppose Southwest’s decision to require COVID-19 vaccinations will be participating in an illegal work operation involving either reporting sickness or participate in a “work slowdown”.
In a statement on Saturday, the airline’s pilots union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said it was not.
“SWAPA is aware of the operational difficulties facing Southwest Airlines today due to a number of issues, but we can say with confidence that our pilots are not participating in any formal or unofficial work-related activities,” it said.
Bad year for Southwest
Southwest has had a difficult year. According to flight tracking service Cirium, the airline had the worst on-time performance and the highest percentage of canceled flights of any four major airlines in the country in June and July.
It’s not just passengers who are upset with Southwest: pilots, flight attendants and mechanics unions have all complained about the airline’s operations.
Southwest promised to address the issues with fewer flights in the fall.
However, Harteveltd noted that Southwest’s troubles would persist and could affect financial performance in the fourth quarter.
“All of this happens while people are in the process of booking their Thanksgiving and Christmas / New Years trips,” he said. “There is a very good chance that some people who normally book with Southwest will see this news and decide to fly other airlines.”
The Associated Press and CNN Wire contributed to this report.
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