FAA Addresses Southwest Flight Cancellations, Says They Weren’t Related to Vax Mandates

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The Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday night that the Southwest Airlines flight cancellations are not related to vaccine mandates.

Southwest cancelled hundreds of flights over the past few days, and said this was due to issues like bad weather.

There was some question of whether this was connected to Southwest pilots asking a court to block the vaccine mandate the airline has implemented.

In a statement, the president of SWAPA said, “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 disputes under these circumstances. SWAPA has not authorized, and will not condone, any job action.”

On Monday Southwest Airlines issued a statement apologizing for the cancellations. It said “the operational challenges were not a result of Southwest Employee demonstrations.”

The FAA then tweeted a brief statement saying, “To be clear: None of the information from Southwest, its pilots union, or the FAA indicates that this weekend’s cancellations were related to vaccine mandates.”

To be clear: None of the information from Southwest, its pilots union, or the FAA indicates that this weekend’s cancellations were related to vaccine mandates. https://t.co/G1fLODSIDS

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) October 11, 2021