Many Southwest Airlines passengers found themselves without a flight this weekend after Southwest canceled almost 2,000 flights in total across Saturday and Sunday. As Reuters reports, Southwest canceled 808 flights on Saturday (24% of all Southwest flights) and another 1,103 flights (30% of all flights) on Sunday, according to data from FlightAware.
In a short press release, Southwest confirmed that its services were affected by “operational difficulties.” In a statement to Reuters, the airline said those difficulties included bad weather in Florida and air traffic control issues in the state. Both Southwest and its pilot union denied the canceled flights were due to any kind of pilot strike over COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
As of the time of this writing, data from FlightAware shows Southwest cancellations have extended into the third day. But today’s cancelation so far amounts to only 171 canceled flights—that’s just 4% of all Southwest flights scheduled for Monday. However, all but one other airline has cancelations in the double or single digits.
If you are flying today, it’s a good idea to check out your Southwest flight status by going to their website here and clicking on the “flight status” button in the blue “Book” bar at the top of the page.
ATC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation. We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected Customers, and Customer Service wait times are longer than usual. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/o1scQJ5lLb
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 9, 2021
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