DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines flights appeared to be moving rather normal on Tuesday after the airline canceled nearly 2,400 flights in the past three days.
By Tuesday noon, Southwest had canceled fewer than 100 flights, or 2% of its flight schedule, according to the FlightAware tracking service. More than 400 other flights were delayed.
Southwest claims bad weather and air traffic control issues in Florida resulted in cascading outages on Friday, with planes and pilots out of position for their next flight. The crisis peaked on Sunday when Southwest canceled more than 1,100 flights, or 30% of its flight schedule.
“When you’re behind, it only takes days to catch up,” CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC on Tuesday. “We fell significantly behind on Friday.”
Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Pilots Union, blames the airline for poor planning. He told The Associated Press that errors in the airline’s crew planning system made flights difficult to occupy and turned a small setback into a meltdown.
Southwest had already cut its fall schedule after widespread summer cancellations and delays. The airline thought these reductions helped, but the weekend debacle is causing them to consider further reductions in flight schedules for November and December.
The flight disruptions began shortly after the Southwest’s 9,000 Pilots Union petitioned a federal court to block the airline’s order to vaccinate all employees against COVID-19. The union argued that Southwest should negotiate the terms for such a mandate.
Both Southwest and the union deny that the flight disruptions were due to a sick protest or employee slowdown. Kelly and Murray both said weekend absence rates were normal, even though they didn’t provide any numbers.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. shares rose 1% in midday trading after falling 4% on Monday.
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