Travelers expecting to fly on Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) had another tough couple of days this past weekend. The company has been plagued recently by an insufficient pilot workforce, which forced the airline to cancel hundreds of planned flights over the weekend.

The official line coming out of the company is that flights were forced to be canceled as a result of "significant spikes" in pilot absenteeism, but has been very careful not to come straight out and accuse the pilots of an illegal job action. Northwest emerged from bankruptcy a couple months ago, and during the course of its bankruptcy procedures was able to win concessionary labor contracts. This, obviously, has not gone over too well with its workforce, and could be part of the problem that has led to the "spike in absenteeism."

This train of thought, however, is quickly negated by Monty Montgomery, who is the spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association branch at Northwest. According to Mr. Montgomery, the problem here has nothing to do with any unhappiness among Northwest pilots, but instead, the blame can be put squarely on Northwest's shoulders. In an official statement regarding this past weekend's cancellations, Mr. Montgomery stated that the problem "is and always has been a staffing problem."