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Kathleen Miller was asleep when the Southwest Airlines text arrived at 1:18 a.m. on Sunday.
Her 7:30 am flight from Phoenix to Dallas was canceled.
The Pennsylvania woman did not see the text until she was at the airport, where Southwest representatives directed her to a reservation change line that winds alongside the TTY counters .
She stood in line for 45 minutes and left with a less than satisfactory change of reservation option: a Tuesday flight.
“Fortunately, we have parents here in town,” Miller said.
Passengers stranded in the southwest of the country are grappling with a second day of massive flight cancellations by the country’s largest national airline.
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Southwest canceled 1,018 Sunday flights at 2 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware flight tracker. That’s 28% of the airline’s scheduled flights and the highest of any US airline by far.
American Airlines canceled 63 flights, or 2% of its operations, while Spirit Airlines canceled 32 flights, or 4% of its flights, according to FlightAware.
The US airports with the heaviest flight cancellations for Sunday departures and arrivals are all major Southwestern “hubs”, although the airline does not refer to them as such: Denver, Baltimore, Dallas Love Field, Las Vegas and Chicago Midway.
Southwest’s Sunday cancellations are in addition to Saturday’s 808 cancellations, or nearly one in four flights. This during a busy travel weekend given a federal holiday on Monday.
The airline blamed the problem on air traffic control issues and weather conditions. In a statement released on Saturday, the airline expressed optimism about improving its operations on Sunday, not deteriorating it.
“We had a significant impact at airports in Florida last (Friday) night after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather conditions and resulted in a large number of cancellations . We are working hard behind the scenes to minimize challenges and fully recover the operation as we take over the displaced teams and customers as quickly as possible. We will continue to reset our network today and hope to return to near operation. normal as Sunday approaches. ”
On Sunday, the FAA responded to statements from Southwest blaming air traffic control issues and the weather – not to name the airline – and said those issues were limited to Friday afternoon.
“No FAA personnel shortages have been reported since Friday,” FAA spokesman Steve Kulm said in a statement. “Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours on Friday afternoon due to widespread extreme weather conditions, military training and limited personnel in an area of the Jacksonville air traffic control center. “
“Some airlines continue to experience scheduling problems due to planes and crews out of place,” the statement continued. “Please contact airlines for details on current flight schedules.”
Southwest did not comment on speculation about other possible causes, including opposition to a vaccine mandate announced by the airline a week ago following the federal vaccine mandate announced in mid-September by the President Joe Biden.
“Southwest Airlines must join our industry peers in complying with the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccination directive,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said on October 4.
Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) blamed the flight problems on staffing and a “mismanaged operation”. He said the rate of ill calling pilots had not increased this weekend. He said nearly three out of four pilots working on Saturday had disrupted trips due to the flight issues.
In a statement posted on its website on Saturday, the union said: “SWAPA is aware of the operational difficulties affecting Southwest Airlines today due to a number of issues, but we can say with certainty that our pilots are not participating. to no official or unofficial action.
“Our pilots will continue to overcome poor planning by the SWA leadership, as well as any external operational challenges, and will remain the most productive pilots in the world. They will continue to focus on their highest priority – safety.”
Fall travel issues for the southwest follow a difficult summer for the airline’s operations. Airline executives have repeatedly said their top priority is to get Southwest’s operations back on track. The airline is hiring thousands of workers to deal with a staff shortage.
► ‘We’re not out of the woods yet ‘: Southwest admits operational struggles
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Southwest Airlines flight cancellations block customers in the United States
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