Delays, Cancellations Continue Tuesday as Southwest Airlines Seeks Recovery – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

It was a turbulent day for Southwest Airlines.

Travel issues persist for the Dallas-based airline as flight delays and cancellations at airports across the country created a ripple effect.

Southwest had canceled more than 2,000 coast-to-coast flights since Friday, including hundreds of flights on Monday alone.

People are talking about staffing issues because industry experts believe there are bigger problems for the aerospace industry.

As of Tuesday, delays and cancellations were much lower, with the numbers improving as the morning wore on, according to FlightAware.

Worst-case scenario on Sunday, 1 in 4 Southwest flights failed to take off, leaving passengers stranded at airports across the country.

It got so bad during the vacation travel weekend that a man in Austin said he paid $ 200 to get a lift home. Another said an Uber to Amarillo was too far, so he rented a U-Haul.

“They said we don’t have trucks or vans, but we have this 10-foot moving truck that you can take. So I said I’ll take it,” said traveler Paul Proffer. “It was the first time that I felt like I was living in the United States and that I was trapped.”

There were long lines and waiting times at Dallas Love Field on Monday.

Southwest has since apologized to its customers. Below is the full explanation.

“Southwest Airlines apologizes to our customers and employees for the flight cancellations and delays on the weekend and on Monday. On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, mainly caused by the weather and other external circumstances Left pre-scheduled positions to meet our Saturday flight schedule. Unfortunately, misplaced planes and ongoing strain on our crew resources resulted in additional cancellations on our point-to-point network cascading over the weekend and into Monday .

Southwest teams have worked diligently to restore the stability of the network and we are seeing fewer disruptions on Monday. We hope to be able to restore our busy schedule as soon as possible. It should be noted that the operational challenges were not the result of employee demonstrations in the Southwest.

To any customer who has experienced a cancellation or delay, Southwest regrets our sincere travel plans and we look forward to the future opportunity to demonstrate our safe, reliable, friendly and legendary Southwestern hospitality – something customers should always expect from Southwest Airlines. If customers need Southwest assistance, they can conveniently use one of the airline’s self-service options or contact us using one of the methods listed on Southwest.com. “

The airline blamed the disruption to both air traffic control problems in Florida and bad weather in that region. That created a ripple effect in the already airtight schedule they had created for their crew.

“With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovery during operational challenges is harder and longer,” Southwest clarified in another statement.

Travel experts were quick to point out that American, Delta, JetBlue, Frontier, and Spirit all have significant operations in Florida and have neither reported these issues nor had significant cancellations.

The Federal Aviation Administration even issued a rare statement that no air traffic shortage has been reported to the FAA in the Florida area since Friday.

No staff shortages have been reported to the FAA in air traffic since Friday.

Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday afternoon due to widespread storms, military training, and limited personnel in an area of ​​the Jacksonville route center.
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– The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) October 10, 2021

Despite rumors, Southwest assured them there was no pilot failure.

On Monday, both the airlines and their pilots’ association said a recent airline vaccination required of pilots hadn’t played a role in the cancellations until December.

A statement from the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association explained the rumors:

“There are false claims about Southwest pilot work actions that are currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can safely say that there are no work slowdowns or absenteeism related to the most recent mandatory vaccination mandate or otherwise. According to the RLA, under these circumstances, our union is prohibited from taking labor law measures to resolve labor disputes. SWAPA has not approved any work actions and will not tolerate them, ”said the union.

The union also said the travel headache was caused by poor planning.

“SWA has claimed that the immediate causes of the meltdown this weekend were the staffing levels in downtown Jacksonville and the weather in the Southeast, but what for other airlines was a small passing event that devastated the airlines in the Southwest because of ours The operation has become fragile and is exposed to massive downtimes, the slightest pressure, ”the union said in an online statement.

Rick Seaney, a travel expert and CEO of Dallas-based travel data analytics firm 3Victors, said weather and other hiccups have historically resulted in delays and cancellations, but have seemingly gotten worse over the years as more airlines merge.

“Even before the pandemic, on any given day, we would have seen 15 to 20% delays and cancellations due to a storm that is sweeping through the system. That often happens because we’ve been through airline consolidation for almost 13 years, ”he said. “And of course, if you have a background of COVID and resource scarcity, it makes it twice worse than it would have been.”

Seaney said that with severe staff shortages across the aviation industry, it doesn’t take much to disrupt an already tight system.

“Unfortunately, bringing in a new flight and crew is not that easy when you are already at the limit with the perfect planning of your crews, the perfect planning of your pilots and making sure that your aircraft is properly serviced. Said Seaney. “Right now it’s a complicated business and not for the faint of heart. I think the airlines for the most part did a pretty good job before the pandemic. When it gets to 100% and we’re still running out of resources, it gets really difficult. “

Seaney warned that it could get a lot worse if it weren’t for the business travel and international travel demand is still at very low levels compared to pre-pandemic data.

“If we only had a supply chain shortage outside of COVID with resource issues like this, it would be a nightmare to be honest. In fact, if they were back in full volumes, they would likely be forced to cut schedules due to a lack of resources, ”he said. “The nice thing is … [business and international travel] should grow gradually over the next few years and hopefully this will be enough time to address the problem of labor shortages in the supply chain. “

Seaney said that for this vacation travel season, being ready for travel issues was just the name of the game. As airlines tailor their flight schedules to suit their employees, there is less frequency between cities and less room for maneuver when weather and other issues arise.

“In all honesty, if someone has been to a dealership in the past three or four months and has tried to see a car, they know what problems are going on in the supply chain. And the same thing happens with resources in the aviation business. Mechanics, flight attendants, pilots, etc. We have seen some things made worse by scarcity of resources, “he said.

At the moment, Southwest says it is still trying to rewrite its schedule so there might be some interruptions to some destinations as everything continues to untangle from the weekend onwards.

The airline has already announced that it will cut its autumn flight schedules to avoid cancellations and delays that would affect its operations in the summer. Now the airline is weighing whether it needs to save more during the holiday season.

Be prepared for delays and possible cancellations that last until Tuesday.

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