Southwest Air cancels 2,000 flights - ATC issue or COVID Mandate Protest? (1 Viewer)

Southwest Air canceled over 2,000 flights citing air traffic control issues.  Happens to coincide a union attempt to block the COVID Mandate.  
 

Southwest cancels more than a thousand flights, cites air-traffic control issues The FAA contradicted Southwest's explanation for the delays and cancellations 

Southwest Air Pilots Seek to Block Covid Vaccination Mandate
 

Probably not for this forum unfortunately, but yeah, it’s not the weather …

Take this outside of basic politics and look at it from a resource management perspective.

There are core professions that need a certain level of staffing and general manpower ( Yes , I said "manpower", some of you activists will just have to live with that ) to generate a functioning civil society.

You need a certain number of soldiers for national defense and general deterrence.

You need a certain number of firefighters, law enforcement, nurses, doctors, truckers, farmers, teachers, sanitation workers, etc, etc to make day to day life actually possible in the United States.

So it's not just SWA and it's not just airlines. You have critical professions that have require a high level of training and many have multiple barriers to general entry. Every police office that resigns in Seattle can't just be replaced in a week. It takes a change over rate of a year or more to get a new officer on the streets and even longer until that person becomes actually functional and possibly competent on the job.

You also have to factor in how functional organizations work. Like NFL teams, you need a certain number of veterans who provide leadership, mentoring and training, while also solidifying the culture in place. So mass turnover creates many long term internal problems as well. No NFL team is going to win anything with a roster wholly full of rookies, even blue chip ones.

There are already critical issues with the current supply chain in America.

First things first, the food supply needs to be secured. People can live without flying and while that impacts many businesses and industries, eventually you can work around most of it. It's unfortunate for those who will truly suffer though or if their segment will be crushed by it. But critically to start, you need stability in people walking into a grocery store and having food be there on a shelf for them.

The other issue is the only truly practical way to galvanized a formerly split society, proven all throughout recorded human history, is to go to war.

No one here wants to live in a society, especially considering the safety of their own children, where going to war is going to be seen as the best cure all for a fractured declining self cannibalizing culture in place.

Back in June I had to spend the night in the Denver airport.  It wasn't because of the weather, it was because Southwest's system that reports/transmits the weather was down.  It was a cluster everywhere.

ETA:  I guess it would also be the system that reports likely turbulence.  

WDIK2 said:

Back in June I had to spend the night in the Denver airport.  It wasn't because of the weather, it was because Southwest's system that reports/transmits the weather was down.  It was a cluster everywhere.

ETA:  I guess it would also be the system that reports likely turbulence.  

Click to expand...

You would think they might have an alternative solution.

It's a little bit of everything. Know a few pilots and they say they still haven't onboard enough right seats.  Then a bunch of crew and ground flunkies walked and a legit weather event and things went to hell.  

Southwest is really run right on the razors edge.  Their hub model simply can't take even a minor disruption.  If you were not hub bound you likely made it out ok ish.  

WDIK2 said:

Back in June I had to spend the night in the Denver airport.  It wasn't because of the weather, it was because Southwest's system that reports/transmits the weather was down.  It was a cluster everywhere.

ETA:  I guess it would also be the system that reports likely turbulence.  

Click to expand...

hmm, i had the same issue going from norfolk to vegas through denver, i’m glad that southwest gave me an airline credit equal to the cost of my room but i was not a happy camper at the time 

CGRdrJoe said:

hmm, i had the same issue going from norfolk to vegas through denver, i’m glad that southwest gave me an airline credit equal to the cost of my room but i was not a happy camper at the time 

Click to expand...

Was flying from El Paso to Omaha through Denver.  If I recall correctly my flight from El Paso was supposed to leave around 2:30.  I got to the airport early to do some paperwork and the place was a zoo with crazy security lines.  My flight ended up leaving around 6.  Found out while boarding that the leg to Omaha was cancelled.  Waited on the plane for an hour in Denver for a gate to open.

I had a checked bag and was told it would be taken off the plane in Denver.  Bag wasn't there.  Waited another 45 minutes at baggage claim to be told my bag would go to Omaha.  Some people were talking about hotel vouchers so waited in line to be told "we can't give out 10,000 hotel vouchers."  I think this was about 11:30.  They checked other airlines but no flights to Omaha that time of night.  They did get me on the first Southwest flight back to Omaha so I figured by the time I took a shuttle or Uber to a hotel I would only be there a couple hours so stuck it out at the airport.

Flight to Omaha the next morning was delayed a couple hours.  Got to Omaha and found out my bag went to Chicago.     I think I got a couple hundred dollars in points or something.