Southwest cancels hundreds more flights, denies sickout

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By DAVID KOENIG

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines canceled several hundred more flights Monday following a weekend of major disruptions that it blamed on bad weather and air traffic control issues. The company and the pilots union said the cancellations were not in response to the airline’s decision to mandate vaccinations.

Southwest canceled more than 360 flights — 10% of its schedule for the day — on Monday, and more than 1,000 others were delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking service.

Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. briefly fell more than 4% before a partial recovery; they were down 3% by afternoon.

The third straight day of large-scale cancellations left thousands of passengers stranded and upset.



Passengers wait in line at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. The Dallas-based airline canceled hundreds of flights Monday following a weekend of major service disruptions. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-business-travel-airlines-2a099f47993c0833c8a7104e1e46af0d

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Betweeen this and blackouts all over China, and more, everything is starting to crumble.

[yaesu]

2. we all should see this coming, shipping, food processing and manufacturing is all coming to a halt

I've seen shortages here for weeks and its getting worse. The straw that may break the camels back may come during the depths of winter when power and heating shuts down do to lack of supply.

[oldsoftie]

3. Pilots are whining about the vaccine mandate.

I've heard them interviewed about taking sick days due to "stress over the mandate". Could have been phonies, but they sounded legit
Covid is pretty stressful too, from what I've seen.

[Initech]

5. Let 'em whine. Replace them with someone who will get the vaccine.

MAGAs are going to find out just how expendable labor really is.

[oldsoftie]

7. I agree, but pilots arent a dime a dozen. Its not like a mfg. plant job.

It takes years to be qualified enough to be given control of a large passenger airplane. Maybe SW should go the Delta route; charge more for insurance & require constant testing if you're not vaccinated. I think they're over 80% right now. I bet that will go up

[Sneederbunk]

4. Why only Southwest?

[Sherman A1]

6. My understanding is that SWA operates a bit differently from other airlines

and I don't understand it completely but rather than a hub system they use something different. This apparently kinda screwed things up royally this time.