Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

thepointsguy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 627 posts

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#81

Post by laverya »

dragonwriter wrote: post #61
AndrewBissell wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume the current administration could direct the Dept of Defense to make military pilots available to Southwest Yeah just have them switch to a completely different type of aircraft without getting trained or checked out at all, this will definitely fix the problem in short order.

> Yeah just have them switch to a completely different type of aircraft without getting trained or checked out at all Southwest’s fleet is all 737s; is this really a different type from the C-40?

28 C-40s built, ever [0]. Southwest has 737 737s in service [1]. (also, lol at the coincidental number)

There's 91 P-8s [2] in USN service, but still not really enough to make up the shortfall. 165 737NGs delivered in military configurations worldwide, according to [3].

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_C-40_Clipper

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_fleet#Curre...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_States_m...

3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_Next_Generation#Ord...

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#82

Post by danielvf »

thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #55
hnburnsy wrote: post #36

Comment from the Southwest Pilots Union... >SWA has claimed that the immediate causes of this weekend’s meltdown were staffing at Jacksonville Center and weather in the southeast U.S., but what was a minor temporary event for other carriers devastated Southwest Airlines because our operation has become brittle and subject to massive failures under the slightest pressure. Our operation and our frontline employees have…

They also explicitly deny that a sickout is occuring: > There are false claims of job actions by Southwest Pilots currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can say with certainty that there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise. Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor dis…

No idea why parent is downvoted. The quote posted is on the official statement on union website linked.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#83

Post by thaumasiotes »

cryptoanon25490 wrote: post #44
toomuchtodo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is the result of a sickout, I assume the current administration could direct the Dept of Defense to make military pilots available to Southwest in the event of an extended availability issue with their union pilots. Not as brutal as Reagan breaking the ATC union, but supporting a common carrier in a time of crisis. I don’t believe a federal case has been heard yet where the vaccine mandate or terminating thos…

Military pilots for commercial airlines. Military personnel in hospitals. When do we get military teachers and military politicians?

We have always had military politicians. Military politicians are older than humankind itself.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#85

Post by nradov »

beerandt wrote: post #79
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also explicitly deny that a sickout is occuring: > There are false claims of job actions by Southwest Pilots currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can say with certainty that there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise. Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor dis…

>Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor disputes under these circumstances They couldn't admit it if that's what they're doing. They'd have to deny it either way. Even an "unofficial" unorganized sick out. On the other hand- if a pilot knew he was getting fired in two weeks for not getting vaccinated, and he happened to have two weeks sick pay, well then the company policy did a…

Even if an employee is fired for cause the employer is required to pay out accrued vacation time.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#86

Post by esrauch »

cryptoanon25490 wrote: post #44
toomuchtodo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is the result of a sickout, I assume the current administration could direct the Dept of Defense to make military pilots available to Southwest in the event of an extended availability issue with their union pilots. Not as brutal as Reagan breaking the ATC union, but supporting a common carrier in a time of crisis. I don’t believe a federal case has been heard yet where the vaccine mandate or terminating thos…

Military pilots for commercial airlines. Military personnel in hospitals. When do we get military teachers and military politicians?

There already was National Guard diving school buses too.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#88

Post by cratermoon »

exogeny wrote: post #25

COVID has taken over 733,000 lives in the US; a number larger than the populations of Boston, Nashville, Detroit, and our own capital in Washington.

over 1 in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. The US has 4.25% of the world's population but 14% of the total deaths. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits...

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#89

Post by fareesh »

cratermoon wrote: post #88
exogeny wrote: post #25

COVID has taken over 733,000 lives in the US; a number larger than the populations of Boston, Nashville, Detroit, and our own capital in Washington.

over 1 in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. The US has 4.25% of the world's population but 14% of the total deaths. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits...

Is it true that 35-40% of US residents are obese?

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#90

Post by OldHand2018 »

rdtwo wrote: post #71
striking wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say that, do you mean the part that reads > Online speculation that Southwest’s new vaccine mandate has led pilots to stage a sickout is being denied by the union representing Southwest pilots.

Vaccines sickout would be a great misdirection for any company suffering an outage or internal failure. I haven’t actually heard of many of any effects ones though

Right, but unfortunately it leads to asking the most obvious question: Why are Southwest flight crews anti-vax when all the other airline flight crews are not?

That's dumb, and it makes no sense. But if it did, then everyone would want to know what the hell is wrong with the people at Southwest. Since it's not, the question is what the hell is wrong with the systems at Southwest.

Post reply on HN