#SOUTHWEST AIRLINES DELAYS FLIGHTS UPDATE#

Meanwhile, at least 10 flights were canceled and 54 delayed at Chicago’s Midway Airport, KTRK-TV reported.Īccording to flight tracker FlightAware, more than a thousand Southwest flights were delayed shortly after 9 a.m. It was not immediately clear how many flights were affected at both George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P.

#SOUTHWEST AIRLINES DELAYS FLIGHTS UPDATE#

“We offer heartfelt apologies to our customers for any inconvenience, and gratitude to our employees who are working diligently to make it up to them,” the airline wrote, adding, “We’ll continue to update customers whose journey with us today might be delayed as result of the now-resolved issues.”Ī spokesperson for Houston Airports told KPRC-TV that the airline’s systems went down at around 4 a.m. American, Southwest and others are now hiring employees to replace some of those who left in 2020.The “intermittent performance issues” stemmed from overnight maintenance of some of the airline’s “backend technology,” the company confirmed. That, however, didn’t stop the airlines from persuading thousands of employees to accept cash incentives and quit voluntarily. He said the airline is also hiring pilots and reservations agents in time for the holidays.Īirlines were barred from laying off workers during the pandemic as a condition of billions in federal pandemic relief - American temporarily furloughed 19,000 workers when the money lapsed last year, but reversed the furloughs when aid was restored. 10, after Southwest Airlines canceled at least 1,800 flights and delayed 1,500 more. Seymour said that nearly 1,800 flight attendants will begin returning to their jobs starting Monday and at least 600 new hires will be on board by the end of the year. Flight delays and cancellations have been rising in recent months as the airline industry faces a shortage of pilots and cannot meet the increased travel demand with COVID-19 restrictions lifting. Denver Airport saw massive lines and congestion over the weekend of Oct. Together, the twin failures raised ominous questions about whether major airlines are prepared for the busy upcoming holiday travel period. The nature of the debacle - starting with bad weather in part of the country before spinning out of control - was similar to disruptions at Southwest Airlines in early October.

“To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights,” David Seymour, the airline’s chief operating officer, said in a note to employees on Saturday.Ībout two-thirds of Sunday’s cancellations were due to a lack of flight attendants in the right places, with almost all the remaining cancellations due to a shortage of pilots, according to internal figures seen by The Associated Press. The number of canceled and delayed flights grew larger in number and geographic sweep throughout the weekend. That made it difficult for American to get crews in position for upcoming flights, and caused disruptions. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.Īmerican Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Sunday for a third straight day as it struggled with staffing shortages and upended weekend plans for tens of thousands of travelers.īy late afternoon Sunday, American had canceled more than 900 flights - one-third of its schedule for the day - after scrapping nearly 900 flights over the previous two days, according to tracking service FlightAware.Ī spokeswoman for American said the airline expects considerable improvement starting Monday, although there will be “some residual impact from the weekend.” By Sunday afternoon, American had already canceled more than 100 Monday flights, according to FlightAware.Īmerican’s troubles began Thursday and Friday, when high winds at times shut down its busiest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and prevented the airline from using all runways there. New York (CNN Business) This summer, flying Southwest Airlines has been a toxic mix of canceled flights, long delays and disgruntled pilots and flight attendants. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.

Southwest airlines delays flights