Southwest CEO Apologizes For Mass Flight Cancellations

After about 2,300 flight cancellations over the holiday weekend, Southwest Airlines’ CEO Gary C. Kelly said Tuesday that "things were much improved" and that operations were "pretty well back to normal."

"I want to apologize to all of our customers, this is not what we want," Kelly said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." "Unfortunately, it just takes a couple of days to get things back on track."

FlightAware data shows that there have been 91 Southwest flight cancellations on Tuesday as of 5:20 p.m. ET.

Kelly placed some blame for the weekend cancellations on air traffic control staffing problems in Florida.

Southwest Airlines employed 62,000 workers before the pandemic. The Dallas-based company currently has about 54,000 employees.

“Things are much smoother today . . . We have a few more cancellations than we would normally have, but things are pretty well back to normal."

The Federal Aviation Administration wrote on their news Twitter account in a two-part thread that there were no air traffic shortages.

“No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday. Flight delays & cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday PM due to widespread severe weather, military training, & limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville en route center . . . Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.”

Kelly and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) both said that the cancellations were not related to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

SWAPA has said that they are not anti-vaccine. Still, they are pursuing legal action against Southwest over its compliance with a federal vaccine mandate, including a restraining order filed by the union eight days ago.

Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights on October 10, 2021 due to what the carrier described as weather and air traffic control problems Photo: AFP / Robyn Beck