Rather, the agency said some airlines were having scheduling issues due to displaced flight crews, which Jordan admitted was a factor in the four-day fiasco. While Southwest attributed the breakdown to ATC and weather, the FAA tweeted its Jacksonville en-route center was impacted by limited staff, weather, and military training for only a few hours on Friday, and the issues did not snowball into the weekend. According to Bloomberg, Jordan said the airline's large operation in Florida led to the snowball effect because about 50% of its flights either start or end the day in the Sunshine state. Southwest blamed air traffic control issues and severe weather in Florida for the weekend disruptions. 'Until the company corrects some of these issues with how they schedule and reroute pilots and flight attendants, we're going to continue to see these issues next week and over the holidays. We don't want the company hiring more people to fill in an inefficient scheduling process,' Murray told the news channel. 'We don't want the company canceling flights.

The environment for our entire industry remains fragile,' Van de Ven said in the video. 'I wish I could tell you that we are out of the woods, but I cannot. From June to August, over 99,000 Southwest flights were delayed, in part due to staffing shortages, according to Bloomberg, forcing the carrier to cut an average of 162 flights per day from October 7 to November 5. However, he explained Southwest is willing to further reduce its winter schedule if it cannot find enough workers. Van de Ven said the company needs to build a 'staffing cushion' to better prepare for unexpected disruptions. The breakdown highlights the continued impact of staffing shortages, and Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven warned the company's November and December schedules might be cut as a result, according to the video. Southwest Airlines experienced a chaotic meltdown over the weekend that caused over 3,000 flight cancellations and left thousands of passengers stranded. Southwest confirmed the existence of the video to Insider. Southwest Airlines' COO Mike Van de Ven told employees on Sunday that a 'staffing cushion' is needed to prevent further schedule reductions this winter, according to a video transcript obtained by CNN.

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