So, what's the real reason SWA's had an epidemic of flight cancellations for 3 days now?

[Muse]

I saw news stories. SWA blames weather and ATC issues. The pilot's union denies that pilots are officially or unofficially protesting the SWA vaccine mandate causing cancellations.

Southwest Airlines flights canceled: What is the actual reason?

Many people in the United States were affected by Southwest Airlines' decision to cancel a plethora of flights over the weekend, and they were not the only company to do so. By 17

www.marca.com

I figure somebody is lying. It's no coincidence that it's pretty much only SWA having this catastrophe. Obviously it's terrible for their business going forward. SWA says they expect the problem to not be resolved by tomorrow, Tuesday. What's really going on here?

 

[feralkid]

Jewish

Space

Lasers.

 

[Greenman]

Pilot on the Chip Franklin show today said it was over the vaccine requirement. Since it isn't mandated yet I assume they're annoyed at their employer over it.

Before we all freak out at me, I'm just relating what one pilot said on a radio show.

 

[GregGreen]

Point-to-point network + weather + starting to run a regular schedule + still being short staffed from like 10% of their workforce taking a buyout last summer.

Not many airlines have a point-to-point network in the US and the ones that do a. already have frequent cancellations b. have a significantly smaller network of cities. With point-to-point, a few things in a row start going wrong and you have a major mess, instead of isolating it to a couple cities or a single hub.

A huge portion of SWA's flights the past couple days have been non-revenue flights getting aircraft and crew to the right spots -- basically a reset

 

[dank69]

Pilot on the Chip Franklin show today said it was over the vaccine requirement. Since it isn't mandated yet I assume they're annoyed at their employer over it.

Before we all freak out at me, I'm just relating what one pilot said on a radio show.

Why would we freak out on you for this post?

 

[fskimospy]

Pilot on the Chip Franklin show today said it was over the vaccine requirement. Since it isn't mandated yet I assume they're annoyed at their employer over it.

Before we all freak out at me, I'm just relating what one pilot said on a radio show.

1) If it’s a non-implemented vaccine requirement to blame why are none of the airlines with actual vaccine requirements having the same issues?

2) isn’t part of having a sick out to gain publicity for your cause? Why deny it?

 

[K1052]

Point-to-point network + weather + starting to run a regular schedule + still being short staffed from like 10% of their workforce taking a buyout last summer.

Not many airlines have a point-to-point network in the US and the ones that do a. already have frequent cancellations b. have a significantly smaller network of cities. With point-to-point, a few things in a row start going wrong and you have a major mess, instead of isolating it to a couple cities or a single hub.

A huge portion of SWA's flights the past couple days have been non-revenue flights getting aircraft and crew to the right spots -- basically a reset

SWA got itself into these kinds of messes somewhat regularly pre-COVID and everybody just forgot. The more spectacular impositions happen when their computers go down which seemed to happen several times a year, halting or delaying almost all flights.

 

[K1052]

2) isn’t part of having a sick out to gain publicity for your cause? Why deny it?

Of course the whole point of having a sickout is lost if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the wold eh?

/Dr. Strangelove

 

[UNCjigga]

Pilot on the Chip Franklin show today said it was over the vaccine requirement. Since it isn't mandated yet I assume they're annoyed at their employer over it.

Before we all freak out at me, I'm just relating what one pilot said on a radio show.

Meanwhile, didn’t United just announce they’ve hit 99.5% vaccination amongst employees?

 

[IronWing]

1) If it’s a non-implemented vaccine requirement to blame why are none of the airlines with actual vaccine requirements having the same issues?

2) isn’t part of having a sick out to gain publicity for your cause? Why deny it?

With sick-outs, unions generally have to nudge-nudge, wink-wink the action in order to avoid getting slapped with injunctions.

 

[Muse]

With sick-outs, unions generally have to nudge-nudge, wink-wink the action in order to avoid getting slapped with injunctions.

Think I saw one principle, union boss or airline exec (probably former) on TV last night saying the sicks for SWA have been nothing above normal. I figure someone's lying.

 

[K1052]

With sick-outs, unions generally have to nudge-nudge, wink-wink the action in order to avoid getting slapped with injunctions.

For contract issues sure but the ruse is usually pretty thin. It's typically pretty apparent when/why a job action is happening and for airlines especially very difficult to hide. Like everybody knows that US Air/American mechanics have been been conducting a job action against the company for years.

Also have not heard a good explanation of why it's just SWA even if it is a job action related to the mandates. There is quite a bit of chatter that the airline has not restaffed as aggressively as others resulting in an overtaxed workforce. If there is a job action it seems more likely attributable to that. Kind of harkens back to 2013-2014 where they decided that they could squeeze more productivity from their fleet just by scheduling flights with 25 minute turns which was insane and ended up causing a ton of problems.