CHICAGO (NewsNation) — As airlines across the country experience quality breakdowns, Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association (SWAPA), maintains the roots of the issue can be traced back to the cockpit.

“Well, we’ve actually seen a disturbing trend that started last summer. What’s happening is, Southwest is having issues connecting pilots to aircraft,” Murray said on NewsNation’s “Rush Hour.”

And it’s not just Southwest. American, JetBlue and Spirit have also been facing hardships, canceling thousands of flights after technology and weather problems, leaving travelers stranded and looking for help nationwide.

Just this past week in Florida, passengers struggled to reach their destinations because of staffing issues and weather. The same was the case in Boston. And Friday, in Las Vegas, workers at Spirit were picketing over mass flight cancelations. Similar protests took place in Orlando and Dallas this month. 

According the Murray, it’s a problem that stems from IT issues and the scheduling process that gets pilots where they need to be.

“Once we start seeing delays, once we start seeing weather issues, it’s taken Southwest five, six, seven days to recover, and our customers are the ones paying the price,” he said.

This week, in fact, Murray wrote an open letter to Southwest executives stating that cases of fatigue among SWAPA’s members are at a 200% increase from last year with more dramatic rises in recent months, and that there is a real safety concern that needs to be addressed.

NewsNation reached out to Southwest about Murray’s letter. The airline said the large increase in pilot fatigue calls is a result of the system actually working as designed.

But Murray said it’s not that simple.

“Well, the system is working and our pilots assure that it’s working and that they’re flying in the safest possible manner that they can. But the fact that it is working so well is indicative of a deeper problem: the numbers of pilots and and how they’re being used,” he said.

Murray added that the derogation of Southwest’s pilot use is something he had identified as far back as four years ago, something he had tried to get the airline to address.

“The reason for the open letter — which is something that we take very, very seriously — was we haven’t seen any (change), and we think our guests deserve better,” Murray said.

Murray said the aim for SWAPA is to make sure the trends do not continue, and to thus avoid seeing worse issues over the summer.

As far as a solution, Murray said his organization is in talks with leaders at Southwest, and he hopes to see fewer cancelations.

“All we want is for the airline to run safely and as efficiently as possible and make sure that we don’t continue to see our guests not get to where they want to be,” he said.