'Make no mistake about it – due to months of staffing issues and inefficient scheduling practices we have been operating at a higher than normal operational risk,' the union's safety committee told members in a post on Saturday. '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,' it said.Įarlier on Saturday, the union said that the company's announcement last week that it will join other airlines in complying with the Biden administration's requirement that federal contractors must mandate Covid vaccinations is contributing to distractions for aviators. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, Southwest pilots' labor union said that 'we can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions.' 'There's a lot of unfounded rumor and speculation circulating.' 'It's inaccurate,' a Southwest spokeswoman said by email. Southwest said that was not the cause of the mass flight cancellations. The disparity between Southwest's operation and other airlines fueled speculation on social media that employees were calling out sick, with some suggesting it was in protest of a Covid vaccine mandate. Incoming CEO Bob Jordan told CNBC last month that the carrier is prepared to cut flights over spring break season if it doesn't have enough staff to support the operation. The airline has struggled to hire new employees in the tight labor market. Southwest had 3,614 flights scheduled on Sunday, the most since April 2020 and down 8% from the same day in 2019, before the pandemic, according to aviation consulting firm Cirium. Southwest doesn't have so-called interline agreements that large airlines like Delta and American have to book travelers on other carriers. He said the airline has fewer frequencies between major airports to reroute or rebook travelers. 'Although we've made schedule adjustments leading into the fall, our route system has not fully recovered - that will take time,' Kasher said. Other airlines also faced a shortage of workers after encouraging thousands to take leave or buyouts at the height of the pandemic, only for travel demand to return faster than expected this summer. The airline trimmed its schedule after the summer to avoid further disruptions.

Staffing shortages fueled hundreds of cancellations and delays at Southwest over the summer. American Airlines, which operates a large hub in Miami, in comparison, canceled 66 mainline flights, or 2% of its operation on Saturday and Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Spirit Airlines canceled 32 flights, 4% of its schedule. The Dallas-based airline canceled 1,019 flights on Sunday, 28% of its schedule, after canceling 808 flights on Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. 'And Teams are working to determine the best course of action to most quickly reset our network.' 'Right now, our Teams are working to protect our Crew network and prevent misconnects - both for our Crews and Customers - that would cause an even greater impact,' he said. Southwest's Kasher acknowledged to employees in his note Sunday that some crew members didn't have hotel rooms last night and said disruptions can quickly snowball as flight crews hit contractual and federal working limits. The airline said in a statement it expected to get close to normal operations by Sunday, but disruptions worsened. Southwest apologized to travelers for long customer service waits. Southwest's major destinations of Denver, Baltimore, Dallas Love Field and Chicago Midway were among the hardest hit by the cancellations on Sunday.

Southwest airlines delays