cancellations on disruptive weather and air traffic control issues. the federal aviation administration later responded saying there have been no air traffic staffing shortages reported since friday and notably no other airlines this weekend seemed to experience the same level of disruption. the cancellations come after the union representing southwest airline pilots filed a request with the court to temporarily block the airline's vaccine mandate causing some to wonder whether the mandate is causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. senator ted cruz tweeted joe biden's illegal vaccine mandate at work. suddenly we're short on pilots and air traffic controllers. the pilot's union insists the pilots aren't participating in any kind of protest and now as flight cancellations continue this morning with 9% of the airline's flights already affected, southwest said on twitter an hour ago they anticipate returning to normal