Thread by @jellen805

🧵SWA's "Perfect Storm"
From a discussion with someone involved:
The SWA debacle over the weekend is the result of a “Perfect Storm” of key issues that cascaded on top of each other.

Unlike AA or Delta, airlines with etc with a “Hub and Spoke” type of regional operations model, SWAs system is built differently and networked country wide.

The ATC issue at JAX on Friday evening was a big issue as SWA has 9 cities there, 2 crew bases and a pilot base, so the shut downs effectively crippled their system.

The Friday night ATC problem came on the heels of the mandate that SWA issued earlier last week and the resulting lawsuit filed by their Pilot’s Union on Friday.

The ATC issue in JAX created a situation where SWA couldn’t get flights off the gates in San Jose for example, as there were no flight attendant crews there to turn them around due to the action in JAX.

In a situation like this, request go out for crews to pick up extra flights. However when the call for crews & pilots to pick up flights went out, individuals acted on their own to decide to stay home. Was it because of the mandates or to use up paid leave before being fired?

Either way was became the perfect storm of problems, which SWA compounded by making public excuses blaming ATC and weather which were shown by Saturday evening/ Sunday morning provably false by travelers across the country.

As travelers struggled to find replacement flights or accommodations for their delays, what really seemed to anger them was SWAs insistence that the cancellations/delays were weather-related meaning no refunds were due their customers.
Where's the $LUV, @SouthwestAir ?

UPDATE: As Casey Murray, SWA Pilot's Union Pres said in interviews yesterday there is no organized labor action happening. Key word: organized.
Are there discussions amongst pilots and crews, independent decisions being made? YES.
This wasn't an accident. 👨🏽‍✈️🇺🇸🥊