Another airline meltdown left flight attendants, pilots sleeping in airports and without hotels

As Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and other carriers faced thousands of cancellations last weekend after technology issues and bad weather in Florida, pilots and flight attendants were left without hotel rooms and sometimes sleeping on airport floors. Union leaders for crew members at the two airlines say they are frustrated that these kinds of meltdowns are becoming more common as carriers increase flights following the COVID-19 pandemic downturn. It’s also an ominous sign with demand for travel this summer at its highest level in years and flight attendants and pilots are worried that more pain is coming for employees and passengers. “We had hundreds of flight attendants with no place to go,” said Lyn Montgomery, leader of the flight attendants’ union at Southwest Airlines. “It keeps happening over and over again to a greater and greater magnitude.” “It’s hard to work in and under those conditions,” she said.

Nearly 3,500 flights were canceled in the United States on Saturday and Sunday, according to Flightaware.com, and about 9,000 more were delayed. That included more than 900 cancellations at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and about 750 at Fort Worth-based American Airlines. Spirit Airlines and JetBlue faced similar operational issues. Problems at Southwest started with a systemwide technology outage following routine overnight upgrades early Saturday morning. That started a cascade of flight cancellations that worsened when a system of thunderstorms rolled through central Florida. That weather system disrupted flights from Miami to Orlando and Tampa and forced the FAA to restrict traffic volume in the region. “When operational challenges canceled flights, delayed travel and caused our crews who were not supposed to spend the night in Florida to time out of their duty day, we quickly ran through the extra rooms we proactively hold for working crew, and there simply weren’t any hotel rooms available for us to book and assign,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement. “We’re committed to improving so this kind of shortfall isn’t put on our hardworking crews in the future.” The company said it working to adjust forecasting so that it has enough hotel rooms planned with expected weather problems and that “we apologize for the extra stress that not having a room for rest caused our crews.”