The Weather-Driven Crash Showed The Southwest Airline's Bigger Problems
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Southwest said it canceled more than 16,700 flights from December 21 to 31. Poor weather conditions showed Southwest's major problems.
Background of events
Southwest Airlines Co. canceled nearly two-thirds of its flights over the Christmas period and planned to cut schedules. Southwest planned to operate just over a third of its typical schedule on consecutive days to give the crews leeway to get into the right positions. Southwest's more than 2,800 scrapped flights he highest of any major U.S. airline, came as the Dallas-based airline proved unable to stabilize its operations amid the past week's storm.
Southwest's chief commercial officer said in an interview that the airline is taking steps such as covering customers' reasonable travel costs - including hotels, rental cars and tickets with other airlines, and will keep customers informed of the reimbursement process. He also said customers whose flights are canceled while the airline is recovering are entitled to a refund if they choose not to travel.
Cause
The airline said the severity and extent of the severe winter storm that swept across much of the country before Christmas overwhelmed the crew planning system it uses to reassign pilots and stewards after the disruption, pointing to inadequate technology systems, most notably SkySolver. SkySolver was overwhelmed by the scale of the task of figuring out which pilots and flight attendants could operate which flights, Southwest executives said. Crew planners had to manually comb records instead. This is one reason the airline was taken off track for over a week. The crews and planes were out of place. Telephone lines jammed, and Southwest pilots and flight attendants trying to get assignments could not reach the planning department.
This isn't the first time disruption has been mounting in Southwest, and the carrier's struggle to reconnect operations shows how its increasingly complex network needs a better technological foundation. Union leaders criticized the airline for being too slow to make changes, and Southwest executives said their systems were being updated.
The Southwest Pilots Union has complained over the years that SkySolver often spits out fixes that don't make much sense, sending crews on round trips around the country. This Christmas, SkySolver not only solved little, but also helped trigger the worst industry crash in recent memory.
Current developments
The airline has taken immediate action to mitigate the risk of another disruption and is re-prioritizing work already underway to improve crew planning platforms. The Southwest has taken steps to prevent further similar incidents as it works to investigate the root causes and explores long-term solutions.
Jordan told employees in a Monday announcement that the airline was working to understand what went wrong and prevent similar situations from happening in the future.
Jordan told staff on Monday that about 98% of bags caught in the disruption had been returned to customers or were on their way, and the airline had processed more than 75% of refund requests, with an average turnaround time of around three days.
Southwest share price
Not only the carrier's image suffered, but also its share price. As a result of these events, the stock fell sharply from 36.09 to 32.19. By the end of 2022, it managed to make up for some losses and increase to 32.60, and Southwest stocks ended the year at this level. this year the LUV is increasing and the stock is currently at 35.61.
Source: wsj.com, finance.yahoo.com
