https://www.wfaa.com/article/travel/southwest-flight-delays/287-860f60a5-e148-4b78-a376-d31cabe0a541
“Osborn’s Southwest Airlines flight was one of more than 1,300 the airline canceled or delayed”
(It’s “thousands cancelled” only when you pretend that “delayed” is the same as cancelled.)
“The website (Flight Aware) reported 168, or 4%, of the (Southwest) airline’s Monday flights were canceled and at least 1,244 flights, or 34%, were delayed.”
“Southwest says weather is to blame for the cancellations.”
“Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, agreed that weather is a factor in the delays and cancellations.
“He claims the airline is facing staffing shortages caused by pilots and others taking extended time off to avoid pandemic-related layoffs”
“The FAA requires pilots to undergo training before they fly again if they’ve been out of the air for a certain number of days.”
“We have about 900 pilots who are coming back from extended time off that are being trained in June and July and we’ll probably slip into August,” Murray said.
(Alas, neither Southwest nor their pilot’s association is blaming killer vaccines for the missing pilots. But it’s always possible that they are Government Trolls so there’s that.)
"Southwest blames storms for mass delays and cancellations, but pilots say other issues are at play"
The passenger who they quoted in the article:
"Osborn said the Denver airport was filled with people trying to find a place to sleep.
“They didn’t cancel our flight until 1:00 a.m., and at that point there were no hotel rooms left, no rental cars and no resources for us to find a place to stay and maybe shower,” she said."
Gee, if they knew they didn't have enough pilots due to retraining, they'd know that before 1 AM.
And the article below yours on the same page you linked said "the spokesperson could not comment specifically on why Southwest had a disproportionately higher number of cancellations and delays than other domestic carriers, he said weather at some of their major hubs - like Denver, Chicago and Orland - was a major factor."
OK, So thunderstorms at O'Hare *only* affect Southworst, I get it.
Somebody's blowing smoke.