Public scrutiny of the Southwest’s holiday crisis has not abated.
Southwest CEO Andrew Watterson faced lawmakers in a Senate committee on Wednesday over the airline’s operational failure that led to the cancellation of nearly 17,000 flights, leaving about One million passengers were stranded during the winter break.
Watterson, the airline’s chief executive, immediately apologized for the incident before the Senate Commerce Committee, saying Southwest was “deeply sorry.”
“Let me be clear. We made a mistake,” he said. “We don’t have enough resilience for winter activities.”
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Under pressure from Congress, Watterson attributed the carriers’ December crisis to their poor winter operations.
As a result, Southwest plans to devote more resources to defrosting trucks and other technology systems to improve its winter operations. However, it is not clear how much this initiative will cost the airline.
“We believe resilience in our winter operations is the root cause and will take longer to resolve, so we will focus on it most of the time,” Watterson said. mine.
Watterson added that Southwest plans to invest $1.3 billion in updating its aging IT infrastructure.
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He said the airline is expected to introduce new software for its cabin crew scheduling system on Friday that will help prevent scheduling problems that in part lead to problems. their subject.
Rebuild schedule: Southwest Airlines adds 5 new routes and will restore 16 more that were cut
The hearing also included testimony from Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, who said pilots had warned Southwest for years about their outdated technology.
“Those who do not learn from history will certainly repeat it. The Southwest has a repeating history,” Murray said. “Unfortunately, despite the many opportunities, Southwest’s management failed to listen to its pilots and frontline workers who saw this crisis imminent.”
Senators criticized Watterson when pilots warned about outdated technology, but the Southwest executive could not answer why the airline ignored the warning signs, focusing instead on the head. invest in new technology and better winter gear.
From December 21 to December 31, Southwest cancel nearly 17,000 flights due to failure to recover from winter storm Elliott. While other airlines successfully resumed operations shortly after the storm passed, Southwest’s outdated technology, coupled with crew mismanagement, led to a full-blown crisis. in operation lasting more than a week.
Per Watterson, Southwest did not know where its crews were, and the airline was unable to even contact some of its pilots or flight attendants for the duration of the incident, with some crew members lost contact for up to 17 hours, according to the testimony. Many passengers were stranded, many lost their luggage and were unable to contact customer service agents to rebook flights. About 200 bags remain unclaimed.
As a result of the failure, Southwest has begun to refund all affected passengers plus 25,000 Express Rewards points. Nearly 11,000 return cases are still pending, according to Watterson.
The crisis also result caused a major financial loss for Southwest—with a $220 million quarterly loss in fourth-quarter earnings. The airline estimated the mass cancellations cost $800 million.
Transportation facilities Also investigating Southwest for the holiday setback to see if the carrier’s flight schedule is unrealistic.
Where will that flight go? Wondering what happened to your favorite Southwest route? Here’s what you need to know
And the turmoil in Southwest’s operations has sparked new calls in Washington to impose more regulations on the airline industry.
Last week, Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Edward Markey (Massachusetts) introduce again The legislation will extend protections to passengers in the event of operational problems or flight cancellations and delays.
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), chair of the Trade Committee, also urged consumer protection measures.
“Doing better also means making sure we don’t leave consumers short,” she said.
However, Republicans did not want to impose regulations. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the committee’s ranking member, argued that further regulation of the airline industry would reduce air service and increase ticket prices.
“The Department of Transportation now plans to investigate the sensitivities of the entire industry’s scheduling, armchairs, and operations,” Cruz said. “That was stupid.”
Additional reporting by Caroline Tanner.
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