‘I’m deeply sorry’: Highlights from Senate hearing over Southwest’s holiday meltdown
canceled nearly 17,000 flights in the final 10 days of December. The cancellations left many passengers stranded and struggling to find luggage or reach customer service agents, while some had to improvise, forgo planned trips or opt to drive rather than fly.
Southwest reported a $220 million loss during its fourth-quarter earnings call last month, after it took an $800 million hit as a result of the cancellations. The debacle has also prompted the Department of Transportation to investigate whether the airline scheduled more flights than it could operate.
overloaded its technology. While other airlines with newer cloud-based technology were able to recover faster, the Dallas-based airline had to schedule crews manually.
Some had been flagging the outdated technology internally for years. Southwest president and CEO Bob Jordan said the fiasco would speed up “plans to enhance our processes and technology as we continue to focus on adding capabilities to bring rapid improvements for you, our valued customers” in a January note to the airline’s Rapid Rewards members.
In his opening statement, Paul Hudson from Flyers Rights, a passenger advocacy organization, said that the meltdown was “unprecedented, but not unexpected.” He said airline systems and technologies are often overstretched and ill-equipped to deal with major disruptions.Â
gave impacted travelers 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points as a “gesture of goodwill,” Jordan said in an email to customers last month.
The airline also directed travelers to its website, where they can request a refund for unused tickets and reimbursement for “reasonable expenses incurred as a result of the disruptions including meals, hotel accommodations, and alternate transportation.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at the time that the DOT would hold the airline accountable.