Airline's cancellations spark heated debate

The service disruptions at a US airline over the weekend could serve as a tell for how the American economy will handle pandemic and political upheaval going forward.

Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel nearly 2,000 flights over the weekend and more than 500 on Monday, stranding flyers across the country.

"It's like, oh my goodness. We're in Baltimore! We don't know anybody here," Stan Dorsey, who was traveling from Pennsylvania to Portland, Maine, with his wife, Terri, told CBS affiliate WJZ in Baltimore. "What are we going to do?"

"Six hours we stood in line to get rebooked. Six hours with one gate agent rebooking hundreds of people," said Terri Dorsey.

The Dallas-based airline blamed inclement weather and air-traffic control issues.

But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Sunday that "no FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday. Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday PM due to widespread severe weather, military training, and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville (Florida) en route center."

Others blamed the airline's pending Dec 8 COVID-19 vaccine mandate, against which Southwest's 9,000-member pilots union has filed a lawsuit. 

"As a loyal Southwest customer who has been flying safely throughout the pandemic and is utterly opposed to vaccine mandates, I'm asking, stop the madness before more damage is done," tweeted US Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican. 

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said it was not behind any job action or sickout and doesn't oppose vaccines but maintained that the airline should have negotiated the requirement with the union.

The union said in a statement Saturday that it "is aware of operational difficulties affecting Southwest Airlines today due to a number of issues, but we can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions.

"Our Pilots will continue to overcome SWA management's poor planning, as well as any external operational challenges, and remain the most productive Pilots in the world.."

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said in a statement Monday: "The weekend challenges were not a result of employee demonstrations, as some have reported." 

"It was a very difficult weekend for many of you, and I've seen speculation on the reasoning,"  Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told employees Monday, reported USA Today. "The fact is the Florida weather on Friday and unexpected ATC (air-traffic control) issues on Friday night resulted in delays and cancellations across our network, and it just got us behind."

The airline lost nearly 28 percent of its workforce after it started offering buyouts in June 2020 amid reduced travel, according to the Houston Chronicle. The drop in employees led to staffing challenges as air traffic rebounded sharply.

"The system isn't designed to flex the way it's been flexing over the last year and a half," said Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis at Teal Group, which follows the aerospace and defense industries, to Business Insider. "We've never had to scale down and up as a system the way we have this time."

Southwest — the fourth-largest airline in North America based on passenger volume, according to statista.com — had canceled 1,124 flights on Sunday and more than 800 on Saturday, according to flightaware.com, a tracking website. The website also showed nearly 600 cancellations on Monday.

"This is a very troublesome problem, but you can bet your bottom dollar that as we head into the holidays with the state of supply chain difficulties and staffing issues this is going to be more common; and each will be more visible and more magnified thanks to social media," brand marketing expert Scott Steinberg told Forbes.

Southwest's woes fueled criticism by conservative politicians and commentators.

"I stand with #Southwest Airlines employees who are fighting against these mandates. This isn't about a vaccine, this is about freedom," tweeted US Representative Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican.

"What caused Southwest to cancel over 1,800 flights this weekend? Biden's covid vaccine mandate for pilots is the most likely cause," wrote sports commentator Clay Travis.

Fox News podcast host Jimmy Failla tweeted sarcastically: "Good call by Southwest to cancel flights out of Columbus, Ohio due to weather. As someone who just flew outta there I would never want anyone to suffer through the same 70 degree temperature with zero wind or rain that we faced. Thankful today for the bravery our pilots showed."

Southwest said its 54,000 employees must be fully vaccinated by Dec 8 or they will lose their jobs. 

United Airlines announced a vaccine mandate in August for its 67,000 employees. 

About 250 American Airlines employees rallied Thursday in front of corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, after the company announced vaccine mandates last week, dallasnews.com reported.