Southwest Airlines Cancellations Not Due to Vaccine Mandate Walkout—Pilots

Southwest Airlines Cancellations Not Due to Vaccine Mandate Walkout—Pilots

Southwest Airlines Pilots Association has rejected "false claims" from conservative figures that the recent mass flight cancellations were due to a vaccine mandate walkout protest.

Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights on Sunday, with hundreds more already canceled early Monday morning, blaming "disruptive weather" and an "FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]-imposed air traffic management program" for the high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend.

"Although we were staffed for the weekend, we could not anticipate the significant disruption that was created from unexpected ATC [air traffic control] issues and bad weather across our Florida stations," Alan Kasher, executive vice president of daily flight operations, told staff on Sunday, via CNBC.