Southwest Airlines CEO Weighs In On Weekend Cancellations

Southwest Airlines Co LUV has been the subject of controversy this week following an unusual spike in flight cancellations. 

"When an airline gets behind, it's hard to catch up," Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk On The Street."

The FAA had "a series of delay programs that were implemented" that led to "significant numbers of airplanes and flight crews that were totally out of position," Kelly told CNBC.

The cancellations did not span the entire airline industry, which led many to suggest that Southwest Airlines was dealing with labor issues potentially stemming from COVID-19 vaccine mandates that were put in place last week. 

“We have some very strong views on that topic, but that’s not what was at issue with Southwest over the weekend," Kelly said.

The Southwest Airlines CEO said he is not in favor of vaccine mandates, but said that the company was forced to require COVID-19 vaccines to comply with federal rules. 

“I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate," Kelly said. “But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a vaccine [mandate] in place by Dec. 8."

As of last week, Southwest Airlines had about 56,000 employees that needed to be vaccinated or needed to seek an accomodation for medical or religious reasons in order to continue working for the airline. 

"The objective here, obviously, is to improve health and safety, not for people to lose their jobs," Kelly said. 

He told CNBC that the company is offering the equivalent of two days in wages to submit employee vaccine cards to Southwest Airlines. 

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Southwest Airlines continues to stress that the cancellations were not vaccine-related, rather a result of bad weather and issues with air traffic control. 

"I think people again that understand how airlines work, when you get behind it just takes several days to catch up," Kelly reiterated. 

"It's been a rough summer and I'm not offering any excuses."

He told CNBC that Southwest Airlines' customers deserve better and the company is already working on improvements. 

LUV Price Action: Southwest Airlines has traded as high as $64.75 and as low as $37.48 over a 52-week period.

The stock was up 1.03% at $52.18 at the close Tuesday. 

Photo: Colin Brown from Flickr.