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Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

thepointsguy.com

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

#111
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That number is probably derived from BMI. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268...

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

#112
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, >Online speculation that Southwest’s new vaccine mandate has led pilots to stage a sickout is being denied by the union representing Southwest pilots. >That follows reporting on social media that some of the issues the airline is suffering could be related to that issue. A spokesperson for the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) told the Arizona Republic it was not aware of any work stoppage and woul…

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…

I don't think vaccine mandates should be unlawful from private companies, but IMO it would be better if they gave a choice between a vaccine and having a recent test. If you need a vaccine or a negative test administered in the last 72 hours to attend work, it's very inconvenient to choose the test route but at least employees wouldn't be able to make the argument that they are being "forced" to get the vaccine.

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

#113
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right... they can't train someone on COBOL? I call b.s. on that. It's an HR issue, you need blah blah degrees and yadi yadi yada experience. Big corps don't adopt to job economy changes over time like this unless their core business is built to adopt to economic changes. Inability to make exemptions and place the right first line managers over teams is what kills big companies, or forces them into an endless loop of…

Not if they can’t find anyone willing to learn COBOL. There’s huge demand for developers on modern systems. Seriously, how much are you going to pay a developer to do mainframe COBOL - and is that developer going to produce commensurate value, really able to hold together a crumbling antique infrastructure?

Fwiw, one of the highest paid coders I ever knew worked for a big stuffy bank. He was unfireable because he was the only one that knew the internal systems as well as he did. Learning COBOL may be a huge long term competitive advantage in the workforce, especially if the current dotcom-esque funny money dries up.

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

#114

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…

Maybe there is something between the lines, but it really does not say much other than the obvious "our operations are worse than other carriers".

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

#115

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…

[flagged]

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

#117
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That would mean that 60% to 65% of those that died were not obese!

Just FYI, the CDC says that about 42% of American adults are classified as "obese".

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

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Southwest also operates a flight network that relies on flights making multiple stops along the way, whereas many other airlines may have more direct flights that aren’t impacted as much by distant flights being delayed. Here’s an article from the AP that mentions the “point-to-point route network” as a contributing factor in terms of a cascading failure: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-business-travel-8abd4e0..…

To counteract this Southwest does not do red eye flights which theoretically should allow them to reset operations overnight. This does not seem to be working for some reason.

Often the limiting factors for an airline aren't the planes, but the humans to operate them. If the pilots aren't in the right place and available to fly, then an overnight to reset the positions of the planes does nothing. Nevermind the fact that resetting the network would in fact burn up flight time which seems to be in short supply.

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

#119
post #68

Slightly better analysis here https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/did-labor-action-ove...

Thanks, also some scenarios in the comments.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/did-labor-action-ove...

> Not official evidence but just asked a close friend who used to work at SW for over 20 years. They texted their former SW union rep (non-pilot union) and they responded that they have >600 flight attendants without hotel rooms tonight due to the unexpected cancellations. They say the story/reasons they are given for the cancellations are constantly changing but they personally think it is a pilot sick out. They may be wrong but non-pilot SW employees think that’s what’s going on.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/did-labor-action-ove...

> As to why this airline and why now, an RT article mentions that-‘SouthWest Airlines became one of the last major US air carriers to introduce a vaccine mandate for its employees last Monday after the company was reportedly pressured by White House coronavirus adviser Jeffrey Zients to comply with President Joe Biden’s vaccination order. Some 56,000 SouthWest employees have until December 8 to get vaccinated if they want to keep their jobs.’

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

#120
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, >Online speculation that Southwest’s new vaccine mandate has led pilots to stage a sickout is being denied by the union representing Southwest pilots. >That follows reporting on social media that some of the issues the airline is suffering could be related to that issue. A spokesperson for the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) told the Arizona Republic it was not aware of any work stoppage and woul…

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…

> 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.

No, they could not, not without a wholesale reworking of the entire FAA. Pilots are trained and certified on individual airplanes; even highly experienced pilots need retraining in order to safely fly a new aircraft. Shoving a bunch of military pilots into 737s is both highly illegal, and would probably result in some plane crashes.

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