Transportation

Southwest Airlines delays continue. What’s next?


— Southwest snafu leaves thousands stranded or delayed. The gist, and what to expect next.

— Fauci (again) talks about potential for passenger vaccine mandates.

— Treasury gives out the remainder of CERTS transportation funding.

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A SCRAPE FOR SOUTHWEST: Three days into what seemed like a never-ending issue for thousands of airline travelers, Southwest continued to cancel flights Monday in high volume, all while its pilot union continued to say that flight crews weren’t to blame.

Southwest on Friday said an “unexpected air traffic control issue” compounded by weather in Florida disturbed flight operations, which caused a cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. The FAA partially backed that up, saying a staffing shortage at the Jacksonville Air Traffic Control Center, severe weather, as well as military training created a backlog. But the agency maintained that these problems were limited in scope and not entirely attributable to its operations, as some might have suspected.

On social media, meanwhile, a conspiracy was brewing: Users who took to Twitter (and TikTok, apparently), predominantly conservative voices, claimed the staffing shortage was due to a mass walkout of ATCs and possibly pilots who wouldn’t get in line for “Biden’s vaccine mandate.”

To recap, Southwest recently announced that, like its sister airlines, its contracts with the federal government require “full compliance” with the federal vaccination directive. That means its employees must be fully vaccinated, or be approved for religious, medical or disability exemption, by Dec. 8 to continue employment — the same date by which federal contractors must prove they’ve been vaccinated. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, its pilot union, last month first sought exemptions to the pending mandate, petitioning members in the administration to reconsider. The union took it a step further on Friday with a legal filing in a Dallas federal court to temporarily block the Covid vaccine requirement.

SWAPA backed its pilots in the latest chaos, saying that the issue spilling over into the early part of the week was not attributable to mass sickouts “either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise.”

Ben Wakana of the White House Covid-19 Response Team, addressed the rumors and amplified SWAPA’s message. “The cancellations also happened after Sox beat the Yankees but that had nothing to do with it either,” he tweeted Monday.

But crew availability is the most logical explanation for the latest setback, whether that’s tied to vaccine mandates or not, explained Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst.

“You can’t staff the operation if you don’t have the level of volunteers,” Mann said, referencing Southwest’s pilot pool. Its reserve faction, for example — or those auxiliary pilots who remain on call — has notoriously been smaller compared with others across the industry. And with the increased push to travel amid a pandemic seemingly in a downward swing, an airline in need of more workers is particularly vulnerable to disruption.

“I suspect a reduction in volunteerism,” Mann told POLITICO on Monday. “Again, that’s because Southwest operates on such a low level of reserve coverage, all you have to have is people saying, ‘Well, you know, it’s a Monday morning, I would have picked up a trip, but I’m not gonna.’”

A return to status quo will happen “when they get the staffing back to a level that allows them to run a reliable operation,” he said.

With that element easier said than done, another is how Southwest is dealing with its customer base. Mann said Southwest looks to fill seats on upcoming flights where and if it can before it resorts to sending passengers to other airlines in the event of disruptions or emergencies, meaning it might be a little while before travelers hop on their next flight.

“There may be very few empty seats on which to re-accommodate customers who were inconvenienced off of canceled flights across the weekend,” he said.

Speaking of vaccine mandates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, again was asked about requiring inoculations for airline passengers, a reinvigorated, hot topic that the White House remains reluctant to formally address.

He told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that “it’s always discussable.”

“We always wind up discussing it, but right now I don’t see that immediately,” Fauci said.

SURFACING THE WRECKAGE: NTSB began work on Monday to recover a Boeing 737-200 operated by Transair that crashed into Mamala Bay, near Honolulu, in July. An NTSB senior air safety investigator, Lorenda Ward, told news media on Saturday the agency’s 40-person crew would begin the excavation over the next few days, weather permitting. It will help determine a cause for the crash, which injured the two flight crew operating the 46-year-old aircraft.

The two members working for the cargo company that runs flights between the Hawaiian Islands were forced to ditch the aircraft into the bay over the summer after the plane suffered an engine anomaly, and freed themselves through the cockpit windows after they hit water. They were subsequently rescued by the Coast Guard and Honolulu Fire Department.

MONEY, MONEY: The U.S. Treasury has issued its final payments to transportation-related businesses through the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services program, or CERTS, officials announced Friday. Over 93 percent of those awarded grants went to small businesses.

“CERTS appropriated $2 billion to make grants to transportation service providers that experienced a revenue loss of 25 percent or more, on an annual basis, as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19,” Treasury officials said. More than 1,400 motorcoach, school bus and passenger vehicle (including vessel or aircraft) businesses received the funding.

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NOT JUST SKY DELAYS: Amtrak rail service stranded passengers on the Northeast Corridor on Sunday because of one of the four classic elements — that being fire.

Nearly 20 trains were delayed for hours because of a fire on a bridge over rail tracks near Philadelphia, The Washington Post reported. Firefighters were on the scene since 6 a.m. responding to the blaze.

One passenger interviewed told the Post that despite his two-hour delay en route to D.C., he was still one of the more fortunate travelers who wasn’t scrambling to catch a flight.

What are the chances those folks were Southwest customers?

— “Democrats’ electric vehicle push sparks intense lobbying fight.” The Hill.

— “Ladies who launch: Women are powering the private space industry.” Fortune.

— “Major climate action at stake in fight over twin bills pending in Congress.” The New York Times.

— “Amtrak fiscal 2021 results favor longer routes.” Trains News Wire.

— “How to move more goods through America’s clogged infrastructure? Robot trains.” The Wall Street Journal.

—“Delta’s exclusive partnership with TSA streamlines check-in, security in Atlanta.” Delta News.

— “Electric vehicles footprints may not currently be as clean as some assume.” Forbes.

— “Corporate business travel ‘carbon budgets’ loom for airlines.“ Reuters.





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