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SWA continues to try to push this weather excuse and ATC excuse... but it doesn't make any sense. Weather in Florida impacted flights in Las Vegas and San Dieg

by Alupis 5y ago

SWA continues to try to push this weather excuse and ATC excuse... but it doesn't make any sense. Weather in Florida impacted flights in Las Vegas and San Diego? The pilots and crews flying those routes aren't the same ones flying the Florida routes, which definitely do not make up 30%+ of all SWA flights. Despite the weather in Florida and ATC issues revolving around the Naval exercises, all other airlines are making their flights and not cancelling anything near the number SWA is... I don't know if this means it's a covid vaccine mandate thing or something else - it seems it would be illegal for pilots to walk-out in an organized manner, which might be why the union also claims it is not an organized walkout. Whatever the problem is, it would not surprise me if SWA is blowing smoke here...

jasonlaramburu 5y ago
>Weather in Florida impacted flights in Las Vegas and San Diego? The article addresses this point. Up to 50% of Southwest's lines pass through Florida: “The big issue is that Florida is roughly 15% of our trips, but on any given day, upwards of 50% of our aircraft lines flow through Florida,” Jordan told TPG. “You’ve got all those lines that just stopped in Florida, so you’ve got a lot of aircraft caught up in that,” he said.
- nafix 5y ago
  I live in South Florida and the weather has been exceptionally normal the past couple months. This past week, absolutely no medium or heavy storming or winds occurred in South Florida. Also, no other airlines based out of Florida had these issues.
- Alupis 5y ago
  Again, no other airline was impacted by this? Only 1 of 11 SWA hubs are in Florida[1], there is no way 50% of their aircraft go through Florida on any given day. Continues to not make any sense. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines
  - toast0 5y ago
    Southwest has a unique scheduling model where most of the flights are on multi-hop trips, as opposed to other airlines where most or at least many flights are to/from a hub. If you're doing mostly east/west multi-hop trips, it doesn't seem unreasonable for a lot of those to touch Florida. It's a popular destination. It's not suprising that an airline with unique routing faces unique challenges.
    - Alupis 5y ago
      Folks, hub-spoke, multi-hops, Florida hub, whatever - none of it matters when a simple 30 minute flight between Los Angeles and San Jose are being cancelled too[1]. Perhaps this LAX -> SJC flight happens to pass through Florida too? Come on... the crews flying these regional routes are the same crews that do it all day every day. Why are these flights impacted too? [1] https://flightaware.com/live/fleet/SWA/cancelled https://flightaware.com/live/fleet/SWA/cancelled
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        > Perhaps this LAX -> SJC flight happens to pass through Florida too? The route, no. The aircraft, very possibly. An aircraft that flew from MIA to LAX last night might be the one intended to fly the LAX to SJC flight today. The flight crew aren't glued to the plane.
      - toast0 5y ago
        I mean... which specific LAX -> SJC flight did you have in mind? Flight 3027[1] does LAX -> SJC, but first it does TPA (Tampa) -> STL (St Louis), and STL -> LAX. There may be some back and forth flights, but if that plane goes back to LAX right away, it's probably flight 2497 [2], which goes to BWI (Baltimore) after LAX. If that plane can't leave Florida in the morning, there goes your noon flight to SJC, and your early afternoon flight to LAX. Plus, the plane may not have made it to Baltimore and the schedule is messed up the next day too. [1] https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?departureDate=2021-10-13&flightNumber=3027 https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?depart... [2] https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?departureDate=2021-10-13&flightNumber=2497 https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?depart...
- josh_today 5y ago
  Then why is Southwest the only airline in the news? Wouldn’t weather impact all airlines equally
  - ncallaway 5y ago
    That is also addressed in the article. > Jordan said it was particularly the line-flow system that Southwest uses as part of a point-to-point network that made it harder for Southwest to recover than other airlines with heavy exposure in Florida, such as American, which has a hub in Miami as part of its hub-and-spoke network. > “We’re not hub and spoke, and we do very little out-and-back,” Jordan said. “So when you stop a line, you’re stopping a line where the aircraft is attempting to flow across the country.”
    - ZanyProgrammer 5y ago
      Isn't Chicago Midway a de facto hub for Southwest, even though they don't call it that?
      - Alupis 5y ago
        Yes, SWA has 11 hubs, even though they refuse to call them that. There's even a list on the wikipedia[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    Southwest is notable for being different; they use a single aircraft type, point-to-point routing over hubs, and started the low-cost airline trend. The same argument applies to the vaccine hypothesis, incidentally. If it was the mandates, the other airlines who instituted mandates should've been similarly affected.
  - knownjorbist 5y ago
    Southwest was affected by far the largest, being the largest. But they are not the only ones affected.
- philote 5y ago
  Anecdotal but I've heard from friends about scheduling (and other) issues with SWA. And when I flew SWA two months ago they had to put me in a hotel for a night due to a 6 hour late flight making me miss my connection. So yeah I'm guessing it's really what they say it is.
dopamean 5y ago
Bad weather in some regions can certainly affect flights in others. If planes in Florida are needed on the west coast and cant leave because of the weather that affects the flights on the west coast.

by Alupis 5y ago

jasonlaramburu 5y ago

>Weather in Florida impacted flights in Las Vegas and San Diego? The article addresses this point. Up to 50% of Southwest's lines pass through Florida: “The big issue is that Florida is roughly 15% of our trips, but on any given day, upwards of 50% of our aircraft lines flow through Florida,” Jordan told TPG. “You’ve got all those lines that just stopped in Florida, so you’ve got a lot of aircraft caught up in that,” he said.

nafix 5y ago
I live in South Florida and the weather has been exceptionally normal the past couple months. This past week, absolutely no medium or heavy storming or winds occurred in South Florida. Also, no other airlines based out of Florida had these issues.
Alupis 5y ago
Again, no other airline was impacted by this? Only 1 of 11 SWA hubs are in Florida[1], there is no way 50% of their aircraft go through Florida on any given day. Continues to not make any sense. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines
- toast0 5y ago
  Southwest has a unique scheduling model where most of the flights are on multi-hop trips, as opposed to other airlines where most or at least many flights are to/from a hub. If you're doing mostly east/west multi-hop trips, it doesn't seem unreasonable for a lot of those to touch Florida. It's a popular destination. It's not suprising that an airline with unique routing faces unique challenges.
  - Alupis 5y ago
    Folks, hub-spoke, multi-hops, Florida hub, whatever - none of it matters when a simple 30 minute flight between Los Angeles and San Jose are being cancelled too[1]. Perhaps this LAX -> SJC flight happens to pass through Florida too? Come on... the crews flying these regional routes are the same crews that do it all day every day. Why are these flights impacted too? [1] https://flightaware.com/live/fleet/SWA/cancelled https://flightaware.com/live/fleet/SWA/cancelled
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      > Perhaps this LAX -> SJC flight happens to pass through Florida too? The route, no. The aircraft, very possibly. An aircraft that flew from MIA to LAX last night might be the one intended to fly the LAX to SJC flight today. The flight crew aren't glued to the plane.
    - toast0 5y ago
      I mean... which specific LAX -> SJC flight did you have in mind? Flight 3027[1] does LAX -> SJC, but first it does TPA (Tampa) -> STL (St Louis), and STL -> LAX. There may be some back and forth flights, but if that plane goes back to LAX right away, it's probably flight 2497 [2], which goes to BWI (Baltimore) after LAX. If that plane can't leave Florida in the morning, there goes your noon flight to SJC, and your early afternoon flight to LAX. Plus, the plane may not have made it to Baltimore and the schedule is messed up the next day too. [1] https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?departureDate=2021-10-13&flightNumber=3027 https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?depart... [2] https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?departureDate=2021-10-13&flightNumber=2497 https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/path.html?depart...
josh_today 5y ago
Then why is Southwest the only airline in the news? Wouldn’t weather impact all airlines equally
- ncallaway 5y ago
  That is also addressed in the article. > Jordan said it was particularly the line-flow system that Southwest uses as part of a point-to-point network that made it harder for Southwest to recover than other airlines with heavy exposure in Florida, such as American, which has a hub in Miami as part of its hub-and-spoke network. > “We’re not hub and spoke, and we do very little out-and-back,” Jordan said. “So when you stop a line, you’re stopping a line where the aircraft is attempting to flow across the country.”
  - ZanyProgrammer 5y ago
    Isn't Chicago Midway a de facto hub for Southwest, even though they don't call it that?
    - Alupis 5y ago
      Yes, SWA has 11 hubs, even though they refuse to call them that. There's even a list on the wikipedia[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Southwest is notable for being different; they use a single aircraft type, point-to-point routing over hubs, and started the low-cost airline trend. The same argument applies to the vaccine hypothesis, incidentally. If it was the mandates, the other airlines who instituted mandates should've been similarly affected.
- knownjorbist 5y ago
  Southwest was affected by far the largest, being the largest. But they are not the only ones affected.
philote 5y ago
Anecdotal but I've heard from friends about scheduling (and other) issues with SWA. And when I flew SWA two months ago they had to put me in a hotel for a night due to a 6 hour late flight making me miss my connection. So yeah I'm guessing it's really what they say it is.

dopamean 5y ago

Bad weather in some regions can certainly affect flights in others. If planes in Florida are needed on the west coast and cant leave because of the weather that affects the flights on the west coast.