jacksonville air traffic control walkout

I fly several times a month to see my daughter and we’ve not ever experienced this craziness.”Ĭopyright 2021 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.RIGHT NOW: A #Jacksonville organization is providing meals to 150 workers at Jacksonville International Airport affected by the government shutdown. “They told me do not do this because if I do this I will lose my spot and probably not get out of here for at least four days.I fly with Southwest all the time. It gave her the opportunity to change her flight day and time at no cost.īut she says there was nothing to change the flight too.

It read: Circumstances beyond our Southwest control such as weather. Meghan Lenihan, another Southwest passenger, showed us a notice she got from the airline about her flight Monday. We didn’t see information on Friday’s delays. Using FlightAware, Southwest, lead the way for delays and cancellations at JAX, and everywhere else Sunday and Saturday. So yeah, it’s a big deal – the Hilliard Center.” We spoke with Les Zeilnhofer who worked at the center in Hilliard for 26 years about the situation, he says the center in Hillard is like a funnel, “just like the state looks like they’re all coming in from the northeast and funnel right into the peninsula. They said weather and unexpected air traffic control issues caused the delays. We asked Southwest specifically about the center in Hilliard. One Southwest flyer Katie McClendon said she was on the phone with the airline for three hours, “they still didn’t answer.”īoth the FAA and Southwest Airlines pointed to problems or limited staffing at the Air Traffic Control Centers. Meanwhile, the people trying to catch a flight say they just want to get home. News4Jax asked the FAA and called the Air Traffic Control center in Hilliard asking if the vaccination mandate has anything to do with these delays, but we haven’t heard back. The airline announced last week that workers must be fully vaccinated by December 8.

The FAA said no staffing shortages within its agency have been reported since Friday. There is speculation the delays are connected to opposition to a vaccine mandate the airline announced a week ago, according to Yahoo! News. The president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) blamed the flight woes on staffing and a “poorly run operation.” “We experienced significant impact in the Florida airports evening after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather and resulted in a large number of cancellations,” Alan Kasher, who oversees Southwest’s daily flight operations, told staff in a note on Saturday, NBC News reported. (1/2) /o1scQJ5lLb- Southwest Airlines October 9, 2021įor comparison, American Airlines has canceled 143 flights while Spirit Airlines canceled 32 flights across the nation on Sunday, according to FlightAware. We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected Customers, and Customer Service wait times are longer than usual. “With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovering during operational challenges is more difficult and prolonged.”ĪTC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation. We’ve continued diligent work throughout the weekend to reset our operation with a focus on getting aircraft and Crews repositioned to take care of our Customers,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson wrote in a statement to News4Jax. “We experienced weather challenges in our Florida airports at the beginning of the weekend, challenges that were compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region, triggering delays and prompting significant cancellations for us beginning Friday evening. There were also six delayed flights, according to FlightAware. The cancelations by the nation’s largest domestic airline have left many passengers scrambling across the country, including in Jacksonville.Īs of Sunday afternoon, there were 13 total canceled flights at Jacksonville International Airport involving all airlines, accounting for 10% of its operation. Southwest has canceled more than 1,000 flights and had another 663 delayed on Sunday as of 5 p.m., according to. Southwest Airlines appears to be one of the airlines still having issues. No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday.įlight delays & cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday PM due to widespread severe weather, military training, & limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville en route center.

Jacksonville air traffic control walkout