Southwest cancels over 2k flights in one weekend alone

Jenny Goldsberry |

Oct 11, 2021

Southwest cancelled over 2,000 flights since Saturday, reportedly due to weather conditions. In addition to disrupting plans of thousands of passengers, their customer service wait times were as long as five hours.

“ATC [Air Traffic Control] issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation,” Southwest tweeted Saturday. “We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected Customers, and Customer Service wait times are longer than usual.”

ATC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation. We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected Customers, and Customer Service wait times are longer than usual. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/o1scQJ5lLb
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 9, 2021

I was on that estimated wait time for over 5 hours TWICE yesterday. And thenI gave up. This morning, someone finally picked up after 1.5 hours.
— Mandy Lyon (@M_is4mandy) October 11, 2021

Then, Southwest customers responded to the wait times on Twitter. “I was on that estimated wait time for over 5 hours TWICE yesterday. And then I gave up,” Mandy Lyon tweeted. “This morning, someone finally picked up after 1.5 hours.” Wait times across airlines are notoriously high, following the furlough of employees due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Delta Airlines restarted their flight attendant training for the first time since March 2020. After 78 weeks in limbo, 99 trainees graduated from flight attendant class on Oct. 1. Still, Delta is currently seeking to hire another 1,500 for its 2021-2022 class, according to a press release Monday.

Neither JetBlue or Delta responded to requests for comment to verify the ATC and or weather problems.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.