Southwest Airlines flights canceled at Hobby Airport due to maintenance issues

Nine Southwest Airlines flights departing from Houston Hobby Airport have been canceled, with the airline facing mechanical problems on hundreds of aircraft in its fleet.

It is unclear whether all cancellations in Houston are related to mechanical issues. According to fly2houston.com, canceled flights had to leave for Baltimore (two flights), Dallas, Oakland, Washington, Austin, San Antonio and New York (two flights).

You can check the exact departure times here.

The airline could not be reached immediately for a joint visit early Wednesday morning.

Southwest said on Tuesday that there was "no common theme" among the mechanical problems, according to Bloomberg. The planes were decommissioned more than twice the daily average of 20 planes, Bloomberg said.

According to USA Today, the airline canceled 191 flights and delayed 858 flights on Tuesday. A spokesman told the media that half of these cancellations were related to maintenance issues.

USA Today said the delays are related to a long-standing labor dispute with the Dallas-based airline.

Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven released a statement on Tuesday that the Brother Aircraft Mechanics Association, an independent union representing aircraft maintenance engineers, was the cause of the disruption. , USA Today reported. The union has been in contract negotiations with Southwest since 2012, according to USA Today.

"We apologize to our customers who have been bothered by this disruption," Van de Ven said.

Julian Gill is a digital journalist in Houston. Read it on our news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | [email protected] | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED: Text CHRONIC TO 77453 receive latest news alerts via SMS | Sign up to receive last minute alerts delivered to your email here.