While Southwest Planes Were Grounded Their Narrative Really Took Off

Will we ever get the truth behind the Southwest narrative?

Southwest Airlines is experiencing a fifth straight day of widespread cancellations. On Monday, 435 Southwest flights were canceled, bringing the total above 2,000 since Friday.

It's not clear what is causing the disruption but the delays and cancelations began shortly after the pilot's union tried to block Southwest's new COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 

Here's what we know so far:

The Southwest Airlines narrative has been amplified by 96 media sources of United States Media across 167 unique narratives in the last 3 days. The most active trends associated with the Southwest Airlines narrative are southwest airlines, air traffic, traffic control, and air traffic control.

Insights

• The pilots union accuses Southwest of a botched response to what it says would have been a minor challenge for other airlines. The third straight day of canceled and delayed flights left passengers stranded and steaming from California to the East Coast
• The Dallas-based airline canceled 808 flights on Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. American Airlines, which operates a large hub in Miami, in comparison, canceled 63 mainline flights, or 2% of its operation
• Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights in total, or 29% of its schedule, as of 7 p.m. ET Sunday. The airline blamed weather challenges in Florida airports at the beginning of the weekend

Every hour, the Kudzu US Media Module analyzes website feeds, Twitter accounts, and YouTube channels of major U.S. media outlets, their editors, and reporters to provide analytical insights on key trends and narrative frameworks.

Get the full Kudzu Narrative Intelligence Report here.

Learn more about customizable Kudzu Narrative Intelligence Reports here.