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Two of Houston's major airports were slammed by a wave of Southwest Airlines flight cancellations this past weekend due to disruptive weather.
George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby experienced dozens of Southwest flight cancellations or delays over the holiday weekend, which was part of a major nationwide problem despite being cited as "disruptive weather," according to ABC13.
"Soooo don’t fly Southwest today! I’ve never seen so many canceled flights! They’re saying it’s due to 'weather' LOL! Okay I’ll pretend I believe it," said Twitter user Elyssa Mai in a tweet that included a video capturing the rampant cancellations in the Houston area.
Following the cancellations and overall dissatisfaction among flyers, Southwest issued a statement, effectively blaming the cancellations and delays on air traffic control problems and weather in the area, according to ABC13. The widespread flight issues resulted in some passengers having to spend the night in Houston's airports, and saw five-hour wait times flight shopping, and a rush for car rentals as many passengers were stranded in the city.
On Oct. 10, numbers collected from flight-tracking systems found that Southwest had canceled more than 1,000 flights across the country and there were delays impacting more than 150 flights, according to ABC13. At noon on Oct. 11, Bush airport saw at least 83 delays and 20 cancellations, with Southwest accounting for 16 of those delays and 7 of those cancellations.
Some have speculated that the cross-country flight problems were not directly tied to weather delays and may trace back to other issues within the company, including possible employee opposition to a vaccine mandate announced by the airline a week ago, according to Austin American-Stateman. One such walkout was rumored to have occurred in Jacksonville on Oct. 9.
Southwest Airlines had only recently resumed service at IAH earlier this year, following a worldwide pause on flights brought about by the pandemic.