Some airlines will try to make you take a credit. If the airline cancels your flight and you are unable to get another one, you are entitled to a refund even if you booked a non-refundable ticket.įlight cancellations: How passengers can prepare, get help or file a complaint The United States has limited consumer protections for travel but you do have rights if your flight is canceled. And there were far fewer passengers traveling back then.Ĭonsumers have rights if flights are canceled The disruption of air traffic controllers walking off the job also would have been felt by other airlines, not just Southwest. When the 1981 strike happened, more than 7,000 flights were affected. ![]() ![]() The Federal Aviation Administration and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association also denied there were any walkouts, sick-outs or strikes over the weekend.Ī historical note of reference: If air traffic controllers had walked off the job en masse as Facebook and Twitter posts suggested, it would have been monumental news given what happened to air traffic controllers who went on strike during the Reagan administration and were subsequently fired. As a note, the operational challenges were not a result of Southwest employee demonstrations," the release posted Monday said. We hope to restore our full schedule as soon as possible. "Southwest teams have been working diligently to restore stability to the network, and we are experiencing less disruptions on Monday. The airline also stated that the cascade of canceled flights wasn't due to any labor action. It wasn't due to a union walkout, sickout or strike In Phoenix, Southwest is hiring for ground operations, tech operations and customer service roles. The airline said it is looking to hire 5,000 employees across its network by the end of 2021. Unfortunately, the out-of-place aircraft and continued strain on our crew resources created additional cancellations across our point-to-point network that cascaded throughout the weekend and into Monday," Southwest posted on its website. "On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, primarily created by weather and other external constraints, which left aircraft and crews out of pre-planned positions to operate our schedule on Saturday. Unlike American and airlines that operate a hub-and-spoke system where aircraft fly into and out of hub airports, Southwest operates a point-to-point system. Southwest issued an apology on Monday afternoon stating as much. The same domino effect happened to Spirit Airlines and American Airlines over the summer. So when a small delay happens, it can snowball. ![]() ![]() Not having a crew may not impact just one flight - it could put a plane out of position for subsequent flights as well. The pilots union has been trying to bring attention to staffing concerns all summer long, before vaccine mandates were initiated.Īnd airline crews are subject to federal rules on how long they can be on the clock. However, like many industries, airlines have struggled to bring back employees. Passenger traffic has rebounded but airline staffing still lagsĪ little background on the landscape of commercial aviation right now: As travelers gained the confidence to return to the skies, passenger traffic rebounded rapidly. So what's true? Here's what you should know about the Southwest flight cancellations. Others blamed staffing problems that have plagued the industry all summer. Facebook and Twitter posts erroneously suggested it was due to a walkout over the federal vaccine mandate and those posts caught fire, spreading across the internet. The airline initially blamed weather in Florida and air traffic control issues for causing cancellations that reverberated across the entire network.īut with clear weather radar screens and the FAA flight delay website showing no problems, conspiracy theories swirled. View Gallery: Southwest Airlines flight cancellations affect Phoenix Sky Harborįor the third straight day, Southwest Airlines canceled and delayed hundreds of flights nationwide as it tried to get its operation back on track.īy Monday afternoon, the flight tracking website Flight Aware showed Southwest had canceled 363 flights, or 10% of its schedule, for the day and had delayed another 1,199 more.
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