ORLANDO, Fla. — Southwest Airlines officials said Monday that the company is trying to get back on track after canceling more than 2,000 flights over the weekend.

Southwest originally blamed “ATC issues and disruptive weather” for the cancellations.

While the Federal Aviation Administration did confirm a number of flights Friday were canceled due to air traffic staffing, and other issues, the FAA rejected Southwest’s claims it was responsible for the extensive cancellations extending into the weekend.

“No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday,” an FAA spokesman told Spectrum News. “Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday afternoon due to widespread severe weather, military training, and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center. Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.” 

In a statement to Spectrum News Monday afternoon, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines said:

“Southwest Airlines extends a tremendous apology to our Customers and Employees for the flight cancellations and delays which occurred over the weekend and on Monday. On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, primarily created by weather and other external constrains, which left aircraft and Crews out of pre-planned positions to operate our schedule on Saturday. Unfortunately, the out-of-place aircraft and continued strain on our Crew resources created additional cancellations across our point-to-point network that cascaded throughout the weekend and into Monday.”

Southwest officials said the company is working as quickly as possible to restore the schedule and to help passengers who were impacted.  

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association responded to the notion of “operational difficulties,” saying the cancellations were the result of “SWA management’s poor planning.”

“It’s been going on for years, and of course this Summer was a prime example, and then this weekend,” said Capt. Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. “Our issue is, there is a lot of internal processes at Southwest that are failing, it’s IT related as well, and what we’re not seeing really are solutions to what’s occurring."

Murray warned that Southwest is likely to continue to face the same challenges if it does not upgrade its IT systems and programs internally.

These are issues Murray said the pilot union has been warning the airline about for years.

The world’s largest low-cost carrier faced scheduling issues earlier this year when CEO Gary Kelly then promised to schedule fewer flights in the fall.

“To any Southwest customer whose journey with us fell short of their expectations this Summer, we offer our sincerest apologies,” Kelly said in a statement earlier this year. “We’re confident these adjustments will create a more reliable travel experience.”

While frustrated passengers continued to crowd check-in counters at airports, both the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and Federal Aviation Administration were both pushing back on social media posts speculating the cancellations were due to intentional work slow downs or protests over vaccine mandates.

“The messaging out there is frankly offensive to us because our pilots are out there working their tails off, coming in on off days and doing what they always doing,” Murray said. “We are the most productive pilots in the world and we’re seeing them step up and through these Southwest failures we’re seeing our pilots do what they can.”

Murray said the number of pilots calling in sick over the weekend is consistent with the summer season, and added that their data shows there are more pilots than ever picking up flights to work.

Murray added that the cancellations and a court filing in response to Southwest Airlines requiring employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine are not related.

Friday, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association filed a request for a preliminary injunction relief in the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.

“What we’re trying to do is just get them to sit down and have some discussions around the vaccine,” Murray said. “All of our peers have agreements in place that address a lot of uncertainty with the long term efforts. Pilots have to maintain medicals. Every six months we go in and we cannot fly without it, so Southwest does not have one agreement with us in place, really, addressing those concerns.”