Jacksonville staff shortage, bad weather led to widespread flight delays, FAA says

JACKSONVILLE, Florida – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) blamed widespread flight cancellations over the weekend on bad weather and air traffic control issues in Jacksonville.

The FAA said on Sunday afternoon that flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours on Friday evening due to widespread extreme weather conditions, military training and “limited manpower in an area of ​​central Mexico. Jacksonville Road “.

“Some airlines continue to have scheduling issues due to planes and crews out of place,” the FAA tweeted.

Southwest Airlines appears to be one of the airlines still having problems.

Southwest has canceled more than 1,000 flights and another 415 were delayed at 1 p.m. Sunday, according to FlightAware.com. Cancellations by the country’s largest national airline have left many passengers scrambling across the country, including in Jacksonville.

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As of Sunday afternoon, a total of 12 flights had been canceled at Jacksonville International Airport, accounting for 10% of its operations. There were also six delayed flights, according to FlightAware.

For comparison, American Airlines canceled 63 flights while Spirit Airlines canceled 32 flights on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

“We have had a significant impact at Florida airports [Friday] evening after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather conditions and resulted in a large number of cancellations, ”said Alan Kasher, who oversees Southwest’s daily flight operations on Saturday , to staff in a note, NBC News reported.

The president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) blamed the flight problems on the staff and a “mismanaged operation”.

According to Yahoo! New.

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The FAA said no staff shortages within its agency had been reported since Friday.