Southwest cancels hundreds of flights following weekend blitz
Disruptions began after pilots’ union asked a federal court to block airline’s vaccine mandate
Airlines cancelled several hundred more flights Monday following a weekend of major disruptions that it blamed on bad weather and air traffic control issues. Both the company and its pilots’ union denied reports of a sickout to protest mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.
Southwest cancelled more than 360 flights — 10 per cent of its schedule for the day — on Monday, and more than 800 others were delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking service.
The widespread disruptions began shortly after the pilots’ union asked a federal court on Friday to block the airline’s order that all employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. The union said it doesn’t oppose vaccination, but it argued in its filing that Southwest must negotiate before taking such a step.
The union denied reports that pilots were conducting a sickout or slowdown to protest the vaccine mandate.
The pilots association offered another explanation: It said Southwest’s operation “has become brittle and subject to massive failures under the slightest pressure” because of a lack of support from the company. The union complained about the “already strained relationship” between it and the company.
Airlines persuaded thousands of workers to take leaves of absence during the pandemic. Unions at Southwest and American have argued that management was too slow to bring pilots back, leaving them short-handed.
Alan Kasher, Southwest’s executive vice-president of daily operations, said the airline was staffed for the weekend but got tripped up by air-traffic control issues and bad weather in Florida and couldn’t recover quickly. Because of cutbacks during the pandemic, he noted the airline has fewer flights to accommodate stranded passengers.
The White House has pushed airlines to adopt vaccine mandates because they are federal contractors — they get paid by the Defense Department to operate flights, including those that carried Afghanistan refugees to the U.S. this summer.
United Airlines was the first major U.S. carrier to announce a vaccination requirement. Southwest had remained silent even after President Joe Biden announced his order for federal contractors and large employers. Finally last week, Southwest told staff they must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 to keep their jobs. Workers can ask to skip the shots for medical or religious reasons.