Passengers checking in for a flight of Southwest Airlines Co. inside Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, on August 10, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | beautiful pictures
Southwest Airlines‘ executives are expected to face questions from the Senate dashboard on Thursday about the airline’s December crisis that left thousands of passengers stranded over the holidays.
Andrew Watterson intend to apologize for the travel chaos before the Senate Commerce Committee. Southwest Airlines Pilots Association president Casey Murray will tell the panel the airline ignored warning signs about its operations, according to written testimony reviewed by CNBC.
Southwest said it canceled more than 16,700 flights between December 21 and December 31. The problems started with severe winter weather across the United States, but the airline lacked the technology to keep up with the many flight changes. flight, causing the airline to cancel most of its schedule for several days to re-establish its workings.
Chaos pushes Southwest to a loss in the last quarter$800 million in pre-tax income.
The incident ended a tumultuous year of travel for many passengers as airlines struggling to accelerate to meet recovery needs. Pressure on the industry has increased over the past year while some lawmakers and the Biden administration are search stronger consumer protection.
The pilots union, which is negotiating a contract with the company, as well as the flight attendants union, have been warning about scheduling problems for years.
Casey Murray said in written testimony before Thursday’s hearing: “Warning signs were ignored. Poor performance was ignored. People made excuses. Processes were broken. reduced. Core values have been forgotten”.
Southwest’s COO plans to protect technology improvements since the December crash, and other improvements are underway. Its CEO has said that the crew reschedule software is not designed to handle too many cancellations that have occurred in the past, but its supplier, synthetic electricity said it has provided updates to Southwest, which it is testing.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET, but a Senate briefing on the China ball that the U.S. shoot down last weekend will likely delay the interrogation.
