Southwest Airlines Co. said it would investigate whether a dispute with its mechanics union was causing maintenance delays that have led to grounded planes and canceled flights.
The airline said that over 40 of its roughly 750 aircraft have been taken out of service in recent days — twice the number of aircraft typically undergoing maintenance at one time. Southwest LUV, -0.05% , the largest U.S. domestic carrier, scrapped nearly 200 flights Tuesday. Hundreds more were delayed.
Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said Tuesday evening in a statement that the surge in out-of-service aircraft followed the latest round of contract negotiations between the airline and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. Those talks have dragged on more than six years and have become increasingly contentious.
“We will be investigating this current disruption and exploring all possible remedies,” Van de Ven said. He added that Southwest is outsourcing as much scheduled maintenance work as possible to make up the increased workload. Bret Oestreich, national director for the mechanics union, said that connecting what Southwest has described as an operational emergency to labor negotiations “is simply an attempt to divert attention away from the airline’s safety issues.”
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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