Southwest Air Debacle

[sjuncfan]

This is bringing back flashbacks to a cruise we took in 2017. We had a flight on Southwest Friday afternoon at 3 pm for our Saturday cruise. Around 10 am Friday, I got a text that the flight was cancelled. I was trying to get through to Southwest for hours, while scouring online for other options. I was looking at flying out of airports two hours away, flying into Tampa, etc. There were no good options to get me there Friday and I was too spooked to fly down Saturday morning. So around 2 pm Friday afternoon, we got in the car and started driving south. We drove around 9 hours Friday and 4 hours Saturday morning and got to the port just in time for our 11 am PAT.

It was never clear why the flight was cancelled (air traffic control issues) - the weather was great and it was a similar situation to now where there was something going on with the airline(s) causing random delays and cancellations but unclear exactly what. Before that, I always thought of Southwest as being different from the other airlines, but that experience (and how they handled it after the fact) definitely scarred me.

 

[HiStitch626]

The fact that Southwest doesn't utilize a hub-and-spoke system like the other major airlines makes widespread issues caused by weather more unlikely. It's more plausible that they could have minor issues that impact flights downstream more often than their competitors while a major issue like this would be less likely.

But, wouldn't their system lead to greater disruption no matter what the cause? No hub system means it's harder to shift both planes and crew, especially at smaller airports. And, depending on the routes, it does not take much of a delay to create an issue with mandatory rest periods. Plus, at many airports, they may still be dealing with fewer ground employees than they need.

The Dallas News, where SW is headquartered, reported that on Saturday and Sunday 10/9 and 10/10 SW has more flights scheduled than at any time since the pandemic began, and the CEO stated they overextended themselves.

 

[mousefan73]

Southwest pilots are using up their unused sick and vacation time before they are fired next month. Funny how southwest is saying weather cancellations when every other airline wasn’t affected by the supposed weather delays.

The only question I have with this theory is why then did this not happen to UA/AA/DL? They have the same mandates and didnt have operational issues? Is the culture so different at SW- ? I have a friend who flys for them- he is flying today.

From what I have heard the shortage of Pilots comes from the 1000+ that took early retirement when the shutdowns first started. I think SW management simply did not recover, nor plan for such a fast recovery and demand beyond 2019. Add in various little operational issues, ( weather,ATC, Crew times) and it snowballs into a big issue. Also their network and connectiviy leave little room for error.

 

[Marrila]

The only question I have with this theory is why then did this not happen to UA/AA/DL? They have the same mandates and didnt have operational issues? Is the culture so different at SW- ? I have a friend who flys for them- he is flying today.

From what I have heard the shortage of Pilots comes from the 1000+ that took early retirement when the shutdowns first started. I think SW management simply did not recover, nor plan.

There appear to be a variety of pilot factors.
That the union is in court working to get the vaccine shot issue included in collective bargaining is notable.
They aren't doing that without a push from their members.

 

[mousefan73]

There appear to be a variety of pilot factors.
That the union is in court working to get the vaccine shot issue included in collective bargaining is notable.
They aren't doing that without a push from their members.

Yeah I saw their Union head on CNBC today.. the Union is using the issue to get the Company to the table. Seems that the Union and Management have some issues. That is the bigger issue. Its not purely the mandate as many imply. The mandate IMO is being used as a tool.

 

[anjuan]

I’m in the Orlando airport right now waiting on a Southwest flight. Things seen fairly quiet. I do see some delays. So far our flight is on time.

Just following up that our plane got into Chicago on time. I feel very lucky considering there was also bad weather in Chicago when we landed. There were a lot of Southwest crew on our flight trying to get where they needed to be for their next flight.