After a snow storm In many parts of the country, most airlines quickly recovered from delays and cancellations. But Southwest Airlines was not, days later still grappling with what executives and analysts described as the biggest operational crisis in the airline’s five-decade history.
Bad weather, coming a few days before Christmas, hit the airline harder than the rest of the industry as inadequate computer systems made it difficult to get crew on board. wait and put passengers on alternative flights, and a flight model that allows problems at one airport to connect with other airports.
“This is the worst cancellation for any airline I can recall in my more than 20-year career as an industry analyst,” said Henry Harteveldt, head of airlines at Atmosphere Research Group , said.
Thousands of travelers are stranded at airports, and many say Southwest has done little or nothing to get them to their destinations. Southwest canceled more than 2,900 flights on Monday; eliminated about 2,500 a day for the next two days, more than 60% of its plan; and said it could take days to fully restore normal operation.
Fabian Maldonado, a construction manager from Los Angeles who describes himself as a loyal Southwest customer, said he and his two sons flew from Burbank, Calif., to Sacramento on the airline’s flight. Southwest on Monday, planning to fly from there to Spokane, Wash. But the Spokane flight was canceled and Southwest didn’t notify him, he said.
“This really made me rethink them,” Mr. Maldonado said. “No customer service; it is falling apart.”
In a video statement Tuesday night, Southwest CEO, Bob Jordan, sorry customer. He said the airline had been unable to get crews to where they needed to go, plus the effects of bad weather and a “huge puzzle” that could take days to solve.
“Our plan for the next few days is to reduce our flight schedule and reposition our people and aircraft,” said Mr. Jordan. “We’re making progress and we’re optimistic we’ll be back on track before next week.”
Transportation facilities said in a statement on Monday said it would look into the issues at Southwest, adding that they were concerned about the airline’s “unacceptable delay and cancellation rates” as well as reports of poor customer service. On Tuesday, President biden retweeted that statement on Twitter and urged customers to check if they were eligible for compensation.
All airlines have come under criticism from lawmakers and regulators for delays and cancellations since. Recovery of travel needs from the pandemic in 2021. Many of the industry’s problems can be traced back to staff shortages in part due to early retirement and buyback that the industry offers to workers after ticket sales tumbled in 2020.
Lyn Montgomery, president of the Local 556 Transportation Workers Union, which represents Southwest Airlines flight attendants, said she spoke Tuesday with Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, to discuss the tried at Southwest Airlines. She says Southwest’s technology is the main cause of the crisis, and her union has long urged the company’s leaders to improve it.
“We’re going to make sure that we hold Southwest Airlines executives accountable for what’s going on so that the airline we’ve helped make this successful,” Montgomery said in an interview. public will return to being reliable and stable.”
Buttigieg said in a statement Tuesday that he also spoke with Southwest chief executive Jordan.
In an interview Tuesday with NBC Nightly News, Buttigieg said, “As most airlines see their performance start to improve, Southwest has really gone in the other direction,” adding, “It’s an unacceptable situation.”
Southwest was the first major airline to turn a profit when the pandemic began to recede. And in some ways, it emerged as a big winner as people started flying and vacationing again.
But analysts say problems are lurking in Southwest’s operations — problems that seemed to have hit the company when bad weather hit late last week.
Aviation experts said the storm had a disproportionate impact on Southwest because the company configures its network differently from how the country’s three other major airlines – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – establish their network.
Most airlines operate on a “hub and spokes” basis, with planes returning to hub airports after flying to other cities – United, for example, has hubs at airports serving Newark, Houston and Denver. Although Southwest has a large presence at certain airports, it uses a “point-to-point” approach, in which planes tend to fly from one destination to another without turning back. one or two main centers.
Hub airlines can close specific routes when bad weather hits, and with good planning, companies can have crews and planes to restart operations when conditions improve . But Southwest can’t do that easily without disrupting many flights and routes, Harteveldt said.
David Vernon, an aviation analyst at Bernstein Research, said that Southwest’s approach allows the company to use its planes more during normal times, but when something goes wrong, problems can arise. can spread rapidly.
Of course, hub and spoke airlines can and have run into major problems, especially when bad weather or other problems cripple operations at one or more major hub airports.
Robert W. Mann Jr., a former airline executive who now runs a consulting firm, said Southwest has long prided itself on having a good relationship with its employees, but has also recently had to Struggling with staff shortages. RW Mann & Company.
“The Southwest has clearly suffered the worst in this regard,” Mr. Mann said. “I have to think it’s more cultural than anything else.”
The turmoil was a test for Mr. Jordan, a longtime Southwest official who took over as chief executive in February. The company’s stock price closed down about 6 percent on Tuesday.
Union leaders say the main cause of Southwest’s problems is inadequate computer systems, which they say failed to effectively connect crews with flights as airlines canceled flights begin to accumulate. “They’ve promised us that they’ve spent time and money on infrastructure, but it’s not enough,” said union leader Ms Montgomery. “The house of cards has fallen.”
Analysts also said Southwest was slow to introduce new systems to help it run its business. “Southwest has never made technology a strategic priority” He. Harteveldt said.
Those and other setbacks are expected to draw scrutiny from officials in Washington, where lawmakers such as Senator Maria Cantwell, who leads the Commerce Committee, have called for Tuesday for stronger protections for travelers, including federal rules that require airlines to refund flights that are delayed or canceled.
The problem got worse for customers, Harteveldt said: Southwest has a no-exchange policy with other airlines, so the company can’t rebook passengers on other flights, Harteveldt said. The failure could force the airline to “buy back” frustrated customers by offering deeper discounts or running more promotions, he said.
No individual region or airport has shouldered the burden of cancellations, although airports with a large presence in the Southwest have been hardest hit. Those airports include Denver International, Chicago Midway, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, and Sacramento International.
It’s been almost a week since the winter storm began ravaging millions of visitors. The number of canceled flights began to increase on Thursday, as airlines canceled more than 2,600 of them. The next day, nearly 6,000, or about a quarter of all US flights, were canceled nationwide. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, nearly 3,500 flights were canceled and a little less, around 3,200, cut from the schedule on Christmas Day.
Report contributed by Derrick Bryson Taylor, Daniel Victor, Shawn Hubler, pedestrian marking and Steve Lohr.
