Ted Cruz spreads baseless claim about Southwest Airlines debacle – By Jay R. Jordan (Houston Chronicle) / Oct 11 2021
Workers are ‘not participating in any official or unofficial job actions,’ according to the Southwest Airlines pilots union.
Junior Sen. Ted Cruz joined the fray of conservative voices spreading misinformation about why more than 3,000 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled over the weekend. The Dallas-based airline received backlash from thousands of customers whose flights were delayed or outright nixed, and pundits and politicians used a weak response from the airline to spread the GOP’s agenda against vaccine mandates.
The airline played up the cancelations as the perfect storm of pandemic-related staffing shortages, issues with air traffic control and the actual weather. The air traffic control center in Jacksonville, Florida, saw some issues Friday when several workers had planned time off, and others were taking a mandatory 48 hours off work after receiving the vaccine, according to a Jacksonville Aviation Authority email obtained by CBS47 reporter Ben Becker. There were also storms in and around Jacksonville on Friday, and military training exercises further exacerbated resources.
Since Friday, there have been no significant issues with air traffic control, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
