Southwest Airlines has cancelled well over 2,000 flights canceled. In other words, Southwest is having a horrible no good very VERY bad weekend. 

The long weekend got a bit longer for Southwest customers after the airline canceled 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. Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Needless to say, the airline’s tweets about the issue are being met with LOTS of derision. Just read the responses.

If your travel was affected, please explore self-service rebooking options by checking your flight status on https://t.co/GiF91yLJcx. (2/2)

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 9, 2021

What’s fascinating and so very disturbing is that people all over social media are getting mad at the pilots and others who are, supposedly walking out in protest of the vaccine mandates. According to them, pilots refusing the vaccine mandate are wanting to kill their customers. Evidently none of those scolds have been on planes since March 2020 when the lockdowns started. 

If they HAD been on planes, as I have been multiple times over the last 18 months, one would realize that

A. The updated airline filtration systems are top notch

B. The airplanes are cleaner than they’ve ever been

C. The number of cases attributed to flying worldwide was 44 cases per 1.2 BILLION travelers worldwide by last October

D. If anything, given all the fear-mongering over the Delta variant, air travel bookings have dropped significantly since August.

So, let’s get back to Southwest Airlines’ massive PR problem. As noted above, Southwest is attempting to gaslight everyone into believing that it was bad weather that has disrupted flights all over the country. 

First, if you look at the tracking via Flight Aware from yesterday, today, and pay attention to the flight tracking for tomorrow, do you notice anything? I certainly did. Southwest Airlines is literally the ONLY airline that cancelled flights left and right!

Yet what does the Southwest PR team do? Blame the FAA and the weather somewhere around Jacksonville, FL for disrupting their nationwide flight schedules for THREE days and counting. 

Except the FAA is pushing back at Southwest’s PR spin. 

The FAA said Sunday that severe weather, military training and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville, Fla., air-traffic-control facility led to flight delays and cancellations for a few hours Friday afternoon, but there had been no staffing issues since.

“Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place,” the FAA said in a written statement.

Something stinks here, and it’s not the airplane bathroom. 

It’s interesting that the timing of this happened just as a major lawsuit was filed by the pilot’s union. 

Southwest Airlines Co. pilots 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.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s filing Friday also asked 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, which governs airline-union relations. Those steps include the Covid-19 vaccination requirement.

Keep in mind, even as corporations, businesses, schools, and gov’t agencies mandate the vaccine, OSHA has yet to come up with a federal rule for the Covid vaccines.

Southwest brought this upon themselves. May every flight be grounded in protest of your compliance with medical tyranny.

Here's the Temporary Restraining Order the Pilot's Association filed against #SouthwestAirlines in federal court on Friday.https://t.co/GLlmzNKogv

— Anabel V. (@Anabel_Villeroy) October 10, 2021

Biden’s vaccine mandate is essentially just a lot of words from a speech given by a blithering idiot in early September. 

Southwest Airlines needs a better crisis comms advisor. The “disruptive weather” (that is only over its planes) is a bad line.

Just tell the truth that the pilots won’t be forced into getting vaccinated.

— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) October 10, 2021

So, what is the REAL issue? This perhaps?

https://twitter.com/thomasbsauer/status/1446963506402660355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1446963506402660355%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Fkatiepavlich%2F2021%2F10%2F10%2Fairline-walkout-n2597223

It wasn’t “severe weather” canceling flights from Jacksonville yesterday, contrary to what passengers were told. So what was it? I have heard that air traffic controllers did a walk-out to protest the Biden vaccine mandate. If so, good on them standing up for their rights. https://t.co/9vOcfXGuDW

— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) October 10, 2021

What is interesting about all of this is Southwest is blaming ATC (air traffic controllers) and the weather for this weekend’s debacle, even as the FAA persistently states there’ve been no staffing issues.

Yet rumors are swirling, especially since the only airline truly affected by the supposed ATC and weather issues is…Southwest Airlines.

Airlines are mandating the vaccines. If there are employees who object, it’s likely they might lose their job. For others who object, they face the possibility of being put on leave to “think about their actions” as if they are two-year olds being put into timeout. Seriously. 

Which airline is next? Seems American is on the chopping block.

The Allied Pilots Association requested that American Airlines find “alternate means of compliance with the Executive Order be made available for professional pilots” so as not to prompt mass firings and unpaid leave following President Joe Biden’s September announcement mandating large employers to require vaccinations or weekly testing.

Look, I’ve flown Southwest for years. The folks who work for that company are terrific people. Since the Covid madness hit, they’ve worked extra hard in incredibly uncertain times. They’ve flown hundreds of thousands of people (some of whom have acted like complete jackasses) all over this country and beyond while trying not to think about this Covid crap. 

But NOW their bosses are putting a vaccine mandate in place, one that does NOT have a federal rule attached. If these cancellations are due to this issue, quite honestly, do you blame them? I don’t. 

Feature Photo Credit: Southwest plane wing by eyeimage via Pixabay, cropped and modified