Southwest Airlines cancels more than 1,000 flights Sunday

Monday, October 11, 2021

The long weekend got a bit longer for Southwest Airlines customers after the airline cancelled more than 1,000 flights on Sunday.
That’s roughly 27% of its daily operations.

It’s the second day of mass cancellations by the world’s largest low-cost carrier

The company blamed the cancellations on air traffic control problems and limited staffing in Florida as well as bad weather.

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said there have been no air traffic related cancellations since Friday. The agency said that airlines are experiencing delays because of aircraft and crews being out of place.

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.

However, other airlines did not appear to be as severely impacted by these issues. On Sunday, American Airlines cancelled 2% of its flights and low-budget Spirit Airlines also cancelled 2%.

It’s a busy travel weekend as Monday is a federal holiday. Southwest cancelled 808 flights on Saturday, stranding thousands of passengers across the country.

Marye Cory was set to fly from Oklahoma City to Orlando Sunday morning for a cruise. At 3 am, she saw her flight had been cancelled and spent more than eight hours on the phone with customer service.

Southwest Airlines has had a difficult year.

The airline had the worst on-time performance and the greatest percentage of cancelled flights of any of the nation’s four major airlines in June and July, according to flight tracking service Cirium.

Passengers aren’t the only ones upset with Southwest: Unions for pilots, flight attendants and mechanics have all voiced complaints about the airline’s operations.

Southwest promised to address the problems by scheduling fewer flights in the fall.

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