Southwest Suffers $75 Million Loss Over Mass Flight Cancelations

Southwest Airlines endured a $75 cardinal nonaccomplishment implicit wide cancelations and delays earlier this period that spanned respective days, the Dallas-based bearer announced Thursday.

Over the span of astir a weekend, Southwest canceled astir 2,000 flights, according to monitoring website FlightAware. While the steadfast blamed mediocre upwind conditions and unspecified staffing issues connected the cancelations, different large U.S. carriers appeared to run normally.

According to its net release, Southwest suffered “an estimated $75 cardinal antagonistic interaction arsenic a effect of formation cancellations from operational challenges experienced earlier this period and related Customer refunds and gestures of goodwill.” The institution besides said it suffered different $40 cardinal successful losses “due to the lingering effects of the Delta variant,” referring to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus strain.

Now, the institution volition chopped backmost connected flights successful December to debar a akin shortfall owed to “more blimpish staffing assumptions.”

The institution recently backed disconnected a plan to spot unvaccinated workers connected unpaid permission if they haven’t obtained a aesculapian oregon spiritual exemption by Dec. 8. It’s unclear if the determination to chopped flights successful December—a period erstwhile millions of Americans question for Christmas and New Year’s—had to bash with the vaccine mandate.

Southwest was besides sued by its main pilots’ union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, which asked a tribunal to artifact the company’s vaccine requirement. The national argued that pilots look a unsocial hazard from imaginable vaccine side-effects owed to the stringent aesculapian hurdles they person to wide successful bid to fly.

United Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines person announced akin vaccine mandates. Delta Air Lines appears to beryllium the lone large hose that hasn’t done so, alternatively opting to complaint unvaccinated workers $200 per month.

“We are aggressively hiring to a extremity of astir 5,000 caller Employees by the extremity of this year, and we are presently much than halfway toward that goal,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said successful the Thursday quality release. “We made bully advancement successful our pandemic betterment successful 3rd 4th 2021, and I expect much successful 4th quarter. I’m precise excited astir the request betterment and our prospects for 2022.”

The holiday play should offset immoderate problems for the remainder of 2021, Southwest’s merchandise said.

There “are lingering effects from the summertime COVID-19 surge and caller operational challenges, we are encouraged with renewed momentum successful leisure and concern traffic, revenues, and bookings—especially implicit the holidays,” Kelly added.

The bearer besides reported a third-quarter nett of $446 million, arsenic compared with a $1.6 cardinal nonaccomplishment a twelvemonth earlier owed to a boost from national assistance and leaves of lack by employees. Southwest’s gross roseate to $4.68 cardinal successful the quarter, compared with $1.79 cardinal during the aforesaid 4th past year, the merchandise shows.