Breakdown: Southwest Airlines blames weather, FAA for 1,800 cancelations this weekend . . . but there may be another reason

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Southwest Airlines has canceled over 1,800 flights since late Friday, blaming “disruptive weather” and problems with air traffic controllers.

The FAA, in a message, said the airline itself was suffering from staffing issues.

Speculation is rampant on social media that there is an unannounced walkout by pilots over the Covid-19 vaccine mandate that the airlines has enacted.

FlightAware, a popular flight-tracking service, reports that 30 percent of Southwest’s Sunday flights were canceled, totaling more than 1,000. Another 800 flights were canceled on Saturday, about one fourth of all Southwest flights. People report staying on hold for hours waiting for a Southwest reservation agent to help them reschedule. People all over the country report being stranded in airports, with the airline showing no concern for them.

Southwest said the cancellations began Friday as a result of weather in Florida and “were compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region, triggering delays and prompting significant cancellations for us beginning Friday evening.”

But other airlines are flying in the same region and through the same hubs with few cancelations, adding fuel to the speculation that this is a pilot walkout.

The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association says it’s not an official or unofficial walkout, but is due to poor management at the airlines:

“Our Pilots will continue to overcome SWA management’s poor planning, as well as any external operational challenges, and remain the most productive Pilots in the world. They will continue to be focused on their highest priority — safety. SWAPA Pilots are true professionals and will always maintain the highest level of responsibility to their crews, their passengers, and our airline,” SWAPA said in a statement on its website.

The FAA said in a statement on Twitter, “No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday. Flight delays & cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday PM due to widespread severe weather, military training, & limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville en route center. Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.”

On Friday, the FAA warned of weather affecting flights out of Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Lauderdale, which gives credence to the weather theory, but doesn’t explain why other airlines were able to operate.

Giving credence to the pilot walkout theory is that Southwest pilots asked a court for a temporary injunction against the company on Friday to prevent it from following the Biden-mandated Covid-19 vaccinations, at least until a lawsuit is settled involving whether the mandate violates U.S. labor law.

The SWAPA filing says the mandate violates the Railway Labor Act, which has authority over airline-union relations.

The SWAPA court filing says, “The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021. Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA.”

The pilots union is also disputing the Southwest Airlines quarantine rules for pilots, as well as some pay and benefit items.

Pilots must pass medical examinations in order to maintain their commercial licenses. Some commercial pilots are concerned that there could be side effects from the Covid-19 vaccine that end their careers.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and President Joe Biden, Allied Pilots Association union president said, “Some of APA’s members are unable to undergo vaccination for documented medical reasons, while others are reluctant to get vaccinated based upon concerns about the potential for career-ending side effects.” Pilots are especially worried about blood clots and myocarditis, a heart condition.

APA wants to negotiate with the carriers how adverse reactions would be covered by the existing long-term disability insurance.

Southwest doesn’t serve Anchorage, although it has had summer service some years, but serves many places across the country and is now selling tickets for a new flight starting in November from Seattle to Bellingham, where many who work in Alaska’s commercial fisheries live.

52 COMMENTS

  1. Pilots, nurses, doctors, police officers, EMTs, firemen…..all people who need to be healthy to do their jobs. They can’t telework. They know the risks of Covid since they all worked through the worst of the pandemic – many in close contact with very sick people. If Biden can exempt illegals and Congress, then he can’t force this experimental vaccine on people either. This needs to be challenged in court, the high court. SCOTUS knows this is an unconstitutional mandate – give them a chance to say so.

      • The short timeline for this by “Let’s go Brandon” is intentional. They figure that fired people who are living paycheck to paycheck following the 2020 lockdowns won’t be able to afford either the time or legal fees to fight this in court. Cheers –

    • Let’s do the quick peel, and ask ……..
      If it was the weather that caused the flight cancellations, why did no other airlines cancel their flights? Hello idiots at Southwest Air management. Can you please come up with another explanation that doesn’t make you look like idiots?

      • That’s easy, they had flight crews, bravely fighting the elements, delivering their passengers safely to their destinations. “Neither snow nor rain or vaxx………..”
        .
        Southwest had their flight crews in remedial therapy, gagged & plasti-cuffed by the HR dept. #letsgobrandon #letsgosouthwest #letsgosteveobeforeyouchimein

        • Yeah, that’s good. Alaska Airline pilots would never do this, though. They have been thoroughly woke by management, LGBTQ, Critical Race Theory gods, BLM, ANTIFA, and woke women flight attendants who no longer serve coffee, tea, or me to White male pilots. The others are all under strict indoctrination.

  2. The first of many disruptions to the economy from walk-outs, strikes, and fired highly trained employees. The impact will be enormous. How long before congress forgets politics and acts to save the country?

  3. There have been so many excellent reasons to impeach Biden and get rid of his cronies. Here is yet another one.

    • Even more reasons to demand a forensic audit of all 50 states for all elections. Does anyone believe that the left won any seats in November after burning major cities, locking down the population, closing businesses, etc.?

  4. Excellent… about time for some good news.
    .
    Fervently hope every other Air Line Pilots Association member follows suit along with the Association of Flight Attendants and every associated support trade.
    .
    Who knows how far and fast this “virus” could spread, especially if cargo flights stop and truckers walk out on already strained supply chains.
    .
    It would be fun to find out. And help.

  5. This really is the bottom line: “Some of APA’s members…are reluctant to get vaccinated based upon concerns about the potential for career-ending side effects.” What kind of choice is that? “Either get the jab, and possibly have a career-ending disability for the rest of your life, or don’t get the jab and still lose your career. Let’s go, Brandon!

  6. My brother in law is a commercial pilot with No Underlying issues. He went and got the J&J jab due to immigration rules in a foreign country he was flying to. In less than two weeks he was in hospital. 5 times in the past 6 months. All for Myocarditis.

    Guess who is medically unable to fly right now? Pilots’ concern is very real, because currently the brother in law is just out of luck because he has no recourse against anyone.

  7. Major airline CYA me thinks.
    Ahem! Another interesting caveat seems Go Brandon ….er Joe B. only did a speech on starting these fake mandates. OSHA hasn’t given any clear rules?? One would think that this became law for all those companies bending over. I think our courts are, and will continue to be busy. May freedom break out all over!

  8. Those Airline Pilots Medical Licenses won’t be renewed without proof of COVID shot. Nor will the Medical Licenses Healthcare Providers are required to have. That’s where we’ll be going with the Federal COVID shot Mandates, let’s call it what it is shall we.
    .
    Anyone know what Federal Contracts Southwest stand to loose if they disobey the Biden COVID Mandates, or how much they got during the pandemic relief giveaways.
    #28BillionPlus #letsgobrandon

  9. “If you have to be persuaded, reminded, pressured, lied to, incentivized, coerced, bullied, socially shamed, guilt-tripped, threatened, punished and criminalized… If all of this is considered necessary to gain your compliance — you can be absolutely certain that what is being promoted is not in your best interest.” – Ian Watson

  10. First of all, the vaccine is not “experimental.” It has been approved for emergency use. That is not “experimental”. Final approval comes after long term studies, which can only happen over the long term.
    On the other hand, ivermectin and hydroquinone and bleach are not approved and have not been studied for use for Covid. Even the manufacturer of ivermectin says not to use it to treat Covid.
    What about this do intelligent people not understand?
    The vaccine has been shown through its administration to millions of Americans and people abroad to be both effective and safe. What about this do intelligent people not understand?
    I feel I am surrounded by people who choose to believe in magic and witch doctor medicine rather than accept that the product of modern technology and science is the better way to go. As they propose a march back to the eras of plagues of various kinds and miraculous cures that happen only for the most fortunate of for the chosen, I wonder how far we are away from burning witches and incanting various gods to portend our future.
    God help us all!

    • If you don’t like the crowd you’re in perhaps you should move on to another; perhaps one filled with mindless zombies who mesmerize themselves upon every word of their messiah Fauci. From the 1940 movie The Ghost Breakers (some say the greatest quote ever):
      Geoff Montgomery : It’s worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.
      Larry Lawrence : You mean like Democrats?
      We, on the other hand, continue to keep eyes open to both very bad evidence about the jab and favorable evidence about alternatives. IVM may or may not help, but it lasts three days. The jab may or may not help, but it is for life.

    • Homo, you are wrong and you are a liar.
      .
      The Wuhan Virus jabs — which are really NOT vaccines by any normal or standard understanding of a vaccine — ARE experimental, by definition, since they have no multi-year trials behind them proving their efficacy or safety (and even then, those trials would still not be a guarantee of either). The fact that they have been approved, and now DEMANDED, by self-serving, power-mad and sociopathic corporations and governments takes absolutely nothing away from that fact.
      .
      It is interesting that you and all the other Covidian sheep and conformists can only rail against the proven and effective use of Ivermectin against the Wuhan Virus by bleating that it is not “approved for use against COVID”. The fact that it HAS been proven effective against it means nothing to your subservient, anti-scientific minds — without the blessing of those in authority, you will not even consider the facts, science and reality. You have an utterly closed and frankly useless mind if you cannot look past the establishment narrative and propaganda, and fail to understand that this panicdemic has NOTHING to do with public health or safety and EVERYTHING to do about public control.
      .
      I will agree with you in one respect: we are surrounded by people who chose to believe in magic and witch doctor medicine. It is, however, YOUR side — the meek, compliant, subservient, docile, conformist, pro-authoritarian, “good German” side — that fits that description, to a T. In your kneejerk and unquestioning acquiescence, and your blind faith in those in power, you are acting as enablers of evil, and are therefore agents of evil.

    • Vitamin C
      Vitamin D
      Zinc
      Quercetin
      Clean Water
      Living Food
      Exercise
      Deep Breathing

      Is this the magic you speak of?

      I call it personal responsibility.

      “Magic” is thinking that one jab is going to relieve you of your duty to care for yourself. What is this, the Wizard of Oz? Your doctor gives you something that you already had within you and instead of understanding it is YOU who has the power to be healthy, you give credit to your wizard in a white coat.
      ***
      Think Mirror

    • Intelligent people understand that when someone survives a virus, they produce antibodies. Science understands that these antibodies have a lasting effect. Why doesn’t Biden?

    • Hydroquinone is a topical treatment used for hyperpigmentation. No one has suggested its use against COVID.
      .
      Merck, the maker of Ivermectin, has produced a new COVID specific pill Molnupiravir. And for people like you who keep calling Ivermectin ‘horse paste’, Molnupiravir was first developed as a treatment for Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis. A five day course of Molnupiravir costs $17.74 to produce. They’re selling to USGOV for $712 a dose, or 40x what is costs to manufacture. Merck has a vested, financial interest in saying Ivermectin, which costs pennies a dose in comparison, has no effect on Covid. Follow the money.
      .
      No one has suggested the use of bleach, not even Trump. He was discussing UV light as a disinfectant. Proof: “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QdTOyXz3w”
      .
      And these vaccines are so effective that a fully vaxxed person and a fully vaxxed + 1 booster in Bronson’s admin just tested positive for COVID. Spare me these ridiculous claims of efficacy.
      .

    • Dear Homo: Sorry to bother you but the principal article does not mention the regulatory status of the vaccines. Nor does it mention other drugs. I know that staying on topic can be difficult. Some people, they say, are easily “triggered”. Grades five through eight must have been difficult for you. Keep trying, Homo. Eventually you may become more persuasive.

    • Homo, thousands killed, tens of thousands injured by the jab. This on rollout, long term rigorous trials are now underway. European countries are stopping the jab for younger humans, while we are allowing mandates. There are world renowned doctors that are sounding the alarm.
      Jab your arm if you’d like and cover your face, but choice is a fundamental right.

  11. There are persistent rumors that the military is backing away from requiring military aviators to be vaccinated because of side effect issues. Don’t have any independent knowledge, but I’ve heard it from people in a position to know.

  12. It’s a valid concern flying on ultra woke airlines with 100% vaccinated employees like Alaska Airlines of pilots stroking out mid air.
    Alaska Airlines has a spotty history, it was actually company policy of avoiding heavy maintenance costs that led to flight 261 crash killing all on board.
    Now they are neurotically obsessed with jabbing all employees, which will lead to massive staffing issues as the adverse side effects incapacitate increasing numbers and the best and brightest resigning to avoid the jabs.
    It’s an unusual policy of dumbing down the workforce, a perverse race to the bottom.

    • “Let’s Go, Socialist”
      “Let’s Go, DNC”
      “Let’s Go, Democrat”
      “Let’s Go, Baby”
      “Let’s Go ACLU”
      “Let’s Go, Green”
      “Let’s Go……..”
      .
      What a brilliant marketing campaign for 2024, the kids will love it, hand out the stickers to all the local imps and urchins.

  13. Alaska air traffic controllers are required to have the vaccine before the end of October. Many will be fired.

    It may be best to not plan on flying in the last week of October.

  14. Also, these strikes in Hollywood of the union crews is also over the vaccines according to my source in the industry. Now Amtrak has jumped on board, along with the ferries in Washington state. People are rising up all over the nation and the globe over these kill shots as more and more are dying from the injections. Also, huge protests daily in Vegas on the strip in the casinos by the tens of thousands over these so called “vaccine” clot shots, that the media is blacking out. I say let all of society shut down. Let the hospitals have the shortages, let the airlines collapse, let Hollywood go bankrupt, let the ferries stop running, the cameras stop rolling, the military stop functioning, and the trucks stop delivering. Let these elitist pinkos fend for themselves and let the whole system collapse. And for every liberal, shill, for every lab rat that parrot these pinko propaganda talking points of “vaccine” clot shots as being the ticket to normalcy and beating the virus; you will reap what you sow and the blood of the vaccine damaged, injured and dead are on your hands; all of the over 500,000 of them. Remember those of us that understand science vs propaganda, and that don’t want, nor need big government to keep us safe. We don’t need big pharma to inject us with their experiments, because we understand real science and can take of ourselves, the rest of you in fear of a virus can not. You are weak and fearful. You are afraid you’ll die of a virus without your shot, afraid you won’t be able to travel without your shot, afraid you won’t keep your paycheck without your shot, afraid you won’t keep your pension without your shot, afraid you won’t get medical treatment without your shot, afraid your brainwashed family members will stop speaking to you without your shot. Nothing but weak and fearful. So let the whole house of cards come tumbling down. We the patriots, were born for such a time as this, and we will survive and overcome. Good luck everybody else, especially the lab rats full of spike proteins, micro clots and now damaged immune systems, you will not survive the next 10 years due to being an injected lab rat. So sorry you chose to put experimental mRNA into into your bodies. You made a very poor choice but that is what happens you you make fear based decisions in life. I back these pilots 100% along with every other industry of workers that walks off the job! Let these medical fascists and pinkos run society themselves. There isn’t enough national guard to replace them, besides most of them don’t want the clot shot either. These elitists and liberal shills can’t run society by themselves and they know it; so bring it on! Let’s shut society down! Let’s bring this country to it’s knees and shut it all down! We the people have the power and we are the majority, not these fat cat fascists like Biden and his lackeys. So shut it down!

    • You need to speak this to the Anchorage Assembly!
      .
      It would of course go in one ear and out the other (with no friction whatsoever in between), but it would still be good to force them to listen to it anyway.

    • Thankyou, well written. The dam is breaking.
      The backed up container ships off LA and New York are due to the retail economy commencing to shut down.
      It’s going to get very ugly as the Marxists in control become increasingly vicious towards the public resisting their power.
      Watch for unrestrained anarchy in the large cities, the riots and looting of 2020 were just training exercises.

    • Amen. Totally love the well stated rally cry. But be prepared, anything and everything the left does to destroy the world will be blamed on everyone else and they will only dig in deeper and deeper and get more radical. They have to. They have committed too hard and condemned too much to be able to bare the humiliation and shame that they have coming to them. They will ban together to keep finding any kind of spin of the truth and use all of their university training to validate each other any they can in order to keep their egos cognitive dissonance intact. Many of them truly can’t afford to back down and it’s actually sad, because this will eventually come crumbling apart on them and many will have a very hard time living with themselves, so hard that they will either flee or… choose to not live with themselves and it won’t be 2 bullets “died by suicide”, it will be the real thing. If you have loved ones that have drank the kool-aid, allow them to find a path to some sort of redemption if they choose to humbly and quietly to seek it out. There are many that are just going with whatever seems to be conventional. Are best hope is to change the perception of what is conventional and activate those passive people because they should also be upset that they have been duped. The head of this snake is Fauci, or at least he is the public facing head of the snake. I really hope that Rand Paul isn’t just grandstanding and is actively pursuing a bombshell case to put Fauci in an international tribunal and tried and convicted by all of the countries he and many others gravely impacted.

      If you haven’t already, you should watch this interview of Fauci. People think he wants to stay in his lead position because he loves the money and the power. I, however, think he NEEDS the power so can keep the truth hidden and obfuscated.
      “https://youtu.be/mCiC60JWC0g”

  15. That was a work stoppage in response to the vaccine mandate. MSM can spin all they want, to save their Cult Leader.

    More cowbell

  16. Just heard that Jacksonville, Florida air traffic controllers walked off job yesterday over vaccine mandates. Things are not going good for Beijing Biden!

  17. Asymptomatic Weather.

    The Narrative has nothing left to spin. Reality is coming in full force.

    Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming

  18. Naaa… this is a group purging their sick leave and vacation time prior to bailing out.

    Looks to me like a lot of them don’t want to get poked.

  19. Good on their Union. Unionizing is the best path to fighting work place issues such as this. Get organized people, or let the top dictate everything!

    • Sadly you are living in another dimension. I agree that unions should help the working people by representing their wishes. Sadly the contrary is true and most unions are nothing but Marxist fronts to empower the elites at the expense of the hard working productive workers..

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