Free Republic

Southwest Airlines issued a press statement Thursday declaring their intention to fire around 2,000 employees and cancel service to four airports following financial difficulties. “[W]e are implementing cost control initiatives, including limiting hiring and offering voluntary time off programs. We now expect to end 2024 with approximately 2,000 fewer Employees as compared with the end of 2023,” Bob Jordan, the president and CEO of Southwest Airlines ... Jordan also announced that the company was shutting down its service to three airports in the United States and one in Mexico. “[W]e have made the difficult decision to close our operations at...

A woman is suing Southwest Airlines after flight staff accused her of trafficking her child. Mary MacCarthy was flying with her 10-year-old daughter, "MM," in 2021 when Southwest Airlines staff called the Denver Police Department and reported her as a suspected child trafficker. MacCarthy is white, and her daughter is biracial. In a lawsuit against Southwest, MacCarthy alleges that she was suspected of trafficking her own daughter "for no reason other than the different color of her daughter's skin from her own." "There was no basis to believe that Ms. MacCarthy was trafficking her daughter," states the complaint, filed August...

This was one of those times when I had to double-check if the announcement wasn’t a parody account. Vice President Kamala Harris’ endless servings of word salad have blurred the lines that separate parody from the real world. When you have become a punchline, it’s a problem. And Harris’ vow to fight inequality in air travel is something you’d see from the hilarious satire account on Twitter, but that’s not who posted it. It was her office. The Biden administration will tackle the next frontier of inequality: bathroom access on domestic flights. No, I’m not kidding. “The majority of domestic...

Southwest loses another legal battle over religious liberty. ... Southwest Airlines’ legal troubles over its discrimination against a pro-life flight attendant continued recently when a federal judge denied the company’s request for a new trial. Charlene Carter previously won a $5.1 million judgment against Southwest and the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) in July 2022 after she was fired from her job six years ago for objecting to her local union’s support for abortion, as LifeSiteNews previously reported. District Judge Brantley Starr also recently ordered Southwest to turn over documents, as Carter’s attorneys allege the airline is not following...

Flight 6013 was destined for Columbus, Ohio, from Las Vegas on Wednesday when a medical emergency broke out mid-flight. One of the pilots urgently required medical attention, leaving only one pilot in a position to fly the plane. But thankfully the off-duty pilot from another airline was on board and ready to step in at a moment's notice. The latest incident follows a string of reports where pilots have been taken ill mid-flight. Aviation watchers have said this was the fifth time in just three weeks. The U.S. Department of Transportation released a safety alert for aircraft operators yesterday, waring...

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – As Southwest Airlines continues to clean up the mess left behind by its Christmas travel fiasco, the carrier faces a new challenge – a potential pilots' strike. The Southwest Airlines pilots' union called for a strike vote on Wednesday. "This isn't about pilots as much as it's about the soul of Southwest Airlines," said Captain Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA). "It's about providing what our mandate is, which is safe and reliable transportation, and reliability is not there today, and our customers deserve better. Our employees deserve better."

Was the Southwest debacle "the perfect storm"? No, it was not.While you're still stuck at some crowded airport -- perhaps one where the police are telling you that you're trespassing -- the apologies have begun. Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan finally, after more than two days of chaos, offered a heartfelt video of apology. I'm sorry. I meant an utterly robotic video of an apology written, it appeared, by a lawyer. On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation & accommodate displaced Customers & Crews. We know this is unacceptable & sincerely apologize. If...

Las Vegas is one of the largest cities for Southwest Airlines. And with the carrier cancelling thousands of flights every day over the holidays, many of those who happened in Vegas have been forced to stay in Vegas. Southwest has said they’ll cover reasonable expenses for affected travelers. That likely covers modest meals and hotel accommodations. But what about immodest expenses? For those, Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club has Southwest passengers covered offering: Free transportation to the club Waived cover charge One free drink And a lap dance According to the club’s General Manager, With the current state of Harry Reid...

An estimated 1,000 travelers spent Monday night at Denver International Airport amid a wave of flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines. The number of people having to spend the night in the airport did tumble on Tuesday to 50 or fewer people, Denver International Airport’s Alex Renteria told The Hill in an email. Denver has been at the center of the storm when it comes to flight cancellations. On Monday, more than 460 flights through Denver International were canceled, and the airport saw more canceled flights than any other on Tuesday as well, according to FlightAware. Tuesday saw 362 flights canceled,...

A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the company, her union and a former colleague who pleaded guilty last year to dead-bolting the cockpit door during a flight and stripping naked in front of her. Christine Janning alleges that Southwest retaliated by grounding her after she reported co-pilot Michael Haak to the company and the FBI. Janning's suit also notes that Haak remained employed despite an alleged history of sexual misconduct and that managers disparaged her in memos. Janning also alleges that the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association conspired with the airline and refused to support her after the August 10, 2020...

A former Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after conflicting with her union president over abortion won a $5.1 million jury verdict against the airline and the union, the The Associated Press reported. Charlene Carter could collect $4.15 million from Southwest and $950,000 from Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union, mostly in punitive damages, the AP reported. The verdict came in federal district court in Dallas last week. The Southwest flight attendant alleged she was fired in March, 2017, after complaining to the union president about flight attendants from Southwest going to a women's march in Washington, D.C....

Nearly 1,300 Southwest Airline pilots gathered outside the Dallas Love Field airport on Tuesday to protest ongoing staff shortages as travel chaos continued on the first official day of summer - with more than 200 flights across the United States canceled. The Southwest Pilots Association called for better treatment of its pilots at the protest, which it called 'the largest display of unity in Southwest Airlines history.' It described the demonstration in Dallas, Texas an 'informational picket' in an effort to raise awareness of pilot fatigue, stress caused by ongoing pilot shortages - which it says is to blame for...

This week, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly testified before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on the issue of mask requirements. Kelly said that "the air cabin environment is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting." Parker concurred, saying "all of our aircraft have the same HEPA filters and air flow. As far as air quality goes, an aircraft is the safest place you can be." When Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif) was spotted on a United Airlines flight without wearing a mask she cited Kelly and Parker's testimony....

(DALLAS) — A 32-year-old woman was jailed on aggravated assault charges after police alleged she got into a verbal dispute with two Southwest Airlines employees upon boarding a flight in Dallas and punched one in the head with a closed fist, sending the woman to a hospital.(snip) The Dallas Police Department identified Arielle Jean Jackson on Sunday as the passenger who allegedly became violent on Southwest Airlines flight 4976 before it even left the ground at Dallas Love Field Airport.(snip) The incident unfolded around 12:40 p.m. on Saturday after Jackson boarded the flight and immediately got into a verbal altercation...

After a confusing few weeks in which Southwest Airlines struggled to adequately explain significant flight disruptions, the airline is again facing questions about the political leanings of its pilots and flight crew. The airline announced Sunday it is now investigating the most recent incident.

Social media users took to their keyboards Saturday to react to a newly surfaced video that purportedly shows a Southwest Airlines pilot concluding an announcement to passengers by saying "Let's go Brandon" over the plane's intercom system.

The new anti-Biden slogan of "Let's Go Brandon!" has truly taken the country by storm, as a more polite way of saying "F*ck Joe Biden!" A Southwest pilot recently signed off using the phrase, as Colleen Long reported for the Associated Press. On Friday morning on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, the pilot signed off his greeting over the public address system with the phrase, to audible gasps from some passengers. Southwest said in a statement that the airline “takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, and respectful environment” and that “behavior from any individual that is divisive...

A Southwest Airlines flight on Saturday turned political when one of its pilots finished an announcement to passengers with "Let's Go, Brandon," a slur used to insult President Joe Biden. "On Friday morning on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, the pilot signed off his greeting over the public address system with the phrase, to audible gasps from some passengers," AP's Colleen Long wrote in an article published on Saturday. Long was a passenger onboard the flight for a vacation, she explained in a Twitter thread, and was almost removed from the aircraft after unsuccessfully trying to get the...

Southwest Airlines employees now know the date they must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination to their employer, or face being placed on unpaid leave. A federal judge denied the Southwest Airlines’ Pilots Association (SWAPA) petition to temporarily strike down the carrier’s December 8, 2021 internal vaccination deadline, along with their entire lawsuit against Southwest alleging violations of the Railway Labor Act. Mandatory Vaccination Will “Improve the Safety of Air Transportation” The pilots union representing roughly 9,000 pilots working for the Dallas-based airline originally sued the carrier in August 2021, claiming the working conditions under the pandemic broke the “status quo”...

A month ago, my brand-new bestseller, "The Great Patriot Protest & Boycott Book," came out. A month seems like a lifetime ago. What happened over this past month validates the strategy I laid out. It changes everything. My book lays out the case that America and American exceptionalism are under vicious attack. We are facing a radical communist takeover of the United States. I believe we must respond with the tactics and strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. -- with strikes, boycotts, protests, intimidation and CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. The great news is the pilots of Southwest Airlines have put these tactics...