Southwest flight cancellations impact Bay Area

Widespread cancellations and delays of Southwest Airlines flights, still not fully explained, continued to plague the carrier Sunday, with the impact felt at all the Bay Area’s major airports.

As of Sunday night, the airline had canceled more than 1,900 flights nationwide over the weekend, affecting almost a third of its schedule, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

Southwest tweeted that “disruptive” weather and air traffic control issues were to blame, but no other airlines were logging major problems with their flight schedules, and it was not clear why those factors would affect only Southwest.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged Sunday that some problems had occurred Friday, but that they were limited and shortlived.

In an email to The Chronicle, agency spokesperson Steve Kulm added that some airlines were struggling with their own staffing and aircraft logistics problems.

“Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday afternoon due to widespread severe weather, military training, and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Air Route Traffic Control Center,” Kulm said. “Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.”

When The Chronicle inquired about the cause, Southwest sent a statement reiterating the reasons shared on social media, but adding that the airline is offering fewer flights than usual, which is contributing to rebooking challenges.

“We experienced weather challenges in our Florida airports at the beginning of the weekend, challenges that were compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region, triggering delays and prompting significant cancellations for us beginning Friday evening,” airline officials wrote.

“With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovering during operational challenges is more difficult and prolonged,” they wrote.

All of the three major airports in the Bay Area were affected by cancellations over the weekend, according to FlightAware, with Southwest accounting for nearly all canceled flights in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland:

Saturday

⏩ San Francisco International Airport: 12 total cancellations, 11 on Southwest.

⏩ Oakland International Airport: 34 total cancellations, 32 on Southwest.

⏩ Mineta San Jose International Airport: 28 total cancellations, 26 on Southwest.

Sunday

⏩ San Francisco International Airport: 23 total cancellations, 15 on Southwest.

⏩ Oakland International Airport: 42 total cancellations, 42 on Southwest.

⏩ Mineta San Jose International Airport: 35 total cancellations, 35 on Southwest.

Southwest also topped the list of the weekend’s canceled flights across the U.S. On Saturday, 808 flights, or 24% of its schedule, were canceled. On Sunday 1,117 flights were canceled, or 30%.

Oakland International and Mineta San Jose airports confirmed the Southwest cancellations to The Chronicle on Sunday, but both referred additional questions to the airline.

“As this is related to the airline and not the airport’s operations, the airport cannot speak to the long term impacts of these cancellations at this time,” Oakland airport officials said in an email.

“Not sure how this will impact SJC tomorrow,” San Jose airport officials said.

SFO representatives did not return requests Sunday for more information.

Data from FlightAware shows that no other major airline was experiencing widespread schedule disruptions. The U.S. carrier with the second most cancellations was American Airlines, with 5% of its flights affected Sunday and 2% affected Saturday, according to FlightAware.

Southwest suffered similar disruptions in June, when a technical problem temporarily grounded all flights several times within a short period.

The Southwest pilots union said in a statement Saturday that it was aware of the widespread flight delays and cancellations, but that they were not because of any protests by its members.

“We can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions,” said the statement from the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.

All Southwest Airlines employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 as part of the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for companies with federal contracts.

The New York Times reported that while the pilots union said it was not against vaccinations, it said that enforcing the mandate could result in workforce shortages and disrupt flight schedules. The union filed a lawsuit against the airline over the mandate and other “unilateral actions,” and workers are authorized to protest against the mandate, according to Newsweek.

For those whose flights were canceled, Southwest Airlines tweeted that people should “explore self-service rebooking options by checking your flight status on southwest.com.” Southwest says it is “offering customers added flexibility” when rebooking on the airline’s website.

But frustrated travelers responded on social media with videos of long lines at Southwest ticket counters trying to rebook. Some said they couldn’t make changes online,had to pay costly fees, and struggled to reach customer service agents on the phone.