Southwest Airlines Cancels 2000 Flights After Activating Employee Vaccine Mandate Image: A departure kiosk shows flights to amongst other places, New York, at Love Field in Dallas, June 24, 2020. New York, Connecticut and New Jersey asked Wednesday for travelers from states with high coronavirus infection rates to go into quarantine for 14 days in a bid to preserve hard-fought gains as caseloads rise elsewhere in the country. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
It was pure chaos for Southwest Airlines passengers this weekend as the carrier canceled more than 2,000 flights Friday through Sunday and put the blame on air traffic control issues, poor weather conditions and staff shortages. However, many observers say the cancellations may have resulted from Southwest’s new employee covid vaccine mandate.
Southwest canceled 808 flights on Saturday alone. The Dallas-based airline canceled three of every 10 departures it had scheduled on Sunday. So far today, a federal holiday, the airline has canceled about one in 10 flights, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.
Other airlines did not have many cancellations over the weekend. On Sunday, American Airlines canceled 2 percent of its flights, and low-budget Spirit Airlines also canceled 2 percent, according to FlightAware.
The world’s largest low-cost carrier, Southwest blamed air traffic control problems and limited staff in Florida as well as bad weather, CNN reported.
But according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, there have been no air traffic-related cancellations since Friday. “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 Air Route Traffic Control Center,” the FAA said.
The airline announced a vaccine mandate a week ago on Oct. 4 for employees. Southwest now requires employees to get the covid-19 vaccine by Dec. 8. The company mandate fueled speculation that a pilot walkout may have caused the weekend delays.
Some customers said they were told the cancellations are a direct result of the vaccine mandate, CBS TV affiliate KHOU reported.
Passenger Ron Frank told KHOU, “I asked them (Southwest) specifically, ‘Is this about the weather?’ – because if it’s about weather, they can deny compensation. They said, ‘No, it’s not about the weather.’ I said, ‘Is this about maintenance?’ They said, ‘No, it’s not about maintenance.’ I said then, ‘What is the problem?’. They said ‘This is all because of the vaccine mandate.” They said ‘We had a massive walkout.” They also said that air traffic control had a massive walkout because of the vaccine mandate. But to couch 1,000 cancelations because of a thunderstorm somewhere is not believable.”
The Moguldom Nation CEO Jamarlin Martin tweeted.”I don’t need to debate anyone on vaccine safety, the loss of legal rights to sue vaccine makers implying elevated risks, etc. I can debate you on logistics. America just won’t work with mass forced jabs. If Democrats want to accelerate volatility & decline of Empire, fine w/ me.”
“The Southwest strike has the potential to grow into something much bigger” alex g@galexybrane tweeted. “Transportation and logistics workers have the power to suspend the supply chain, stop travel, and grind society to a halt. Labor action may be the most important tool in the fight against authoritarianism.”
According to Southwest, it issued the vaccine mandate following new rules announced by the Biden administration in September which require employees of companies with federal contracts to be vaccinated by Dec. 8. Southwest, like other major airlines, qualifies as a federal contractor because it transports government employees and members of the military, among other services, Fortune reported.
Despite this, Southwest pilots are looking to block the mandate. The pilots have asked a court to temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved, Bloomberg reported.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s filing was made on Friday, Oct. 8, with the major flight cancellations happening the next day, Saturday. The filing asks for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to take unilateral actions that violate terms of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which governs airline-union relations. Those steps include the covid-19 vaccination requirement.
American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Alaska Airlines all recently announced they would require employees to be vaccinated against covid-19 due to their own status as federal contractors. United Airlines was the first carrier to issue such a mandate. It did so in August.
Delta Air Lines is now the only major U.S. carrier that hasn’t yet required employees to get covid-19 shots. Also a federal contractor, it said it’s still reviewing the administration’s executive order.
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