Southwest Airlines Has Canceled More Than 1,800 Flights This Weekend

Many guests who visit Disney World do so by flying into Orlando International Airport.

Southwest is celebrating Disney World’s 50th

Many guests arrive at the Orlando Airport via Southwest Airlines, which recently unveiled a special plane to honor Disney World’s 50th anniversary. But this weekend, Southwest is experiencing some major cancellations, and those difficulties have impacted Florida airports.

According to CNBC, Southwest has canceled more than 1,800 flights this weekend. The company blamed air traffic control issues and bad weather on the disruptions.

“We experienced significant impact in the Florida airports [Friday] 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 flight operations, said in a statement.

“We are working hard behind the scenes to minimize challenges and fully recover the operation as we take care of displaced Crews and Customers as quickly as possible,” the company said.

However, CNBC did point out that other airlines were reporting far fewer disruptions, and commented that Southwest has been struggling with staff shortages since summer, which resulted in multiple cancellations. The airline was also forced to ground flights in June due to a system-wide outage.

So if you have plans to fly on Southwest over the next few days, be sure to keep an eye on the schedule and stay in contact with the airline. And we’ll do our best to keep you updated, too.