Jordan stated the airline has already put measures in place to “additional scale back the chance of future operational disruptions,” together with including further staff who can rapidly deal with scheduling points if giant numbers of crew members are misplaced. Unions had warned Southwest about outdated know-how that contributed to the issues final month, together with methods for scheduling workers.
Jordan stated within the electronic mail that Southwest is already bettering a few of its know-how to higher talk with giant numbers of crew members when their schedules change continuously. Updating and optimizing its crew restoration system can be a precedence, Jordan stated.
Trying forward, the chief govt stated final month’s issues would speed up the airline’s plans to enhance know-how and processes; the corporate has budgeted greater than $1 billion of its annual working plan to improve, keep, and spend money on IT methods.
To realize a greater understanding of the weaknesses that precipitated the holiday to fail, Southwest employed consulting agency Oliver Wyman to look at the problems and suggest additional steps. The airline’s board of administrators additionally appointed an operations overview committee to deal with what occurred and oversee the response.
Southwest’s vacation collapse, which snowballed after large storm methods strained the airline’s flight community, drew scrutiny from authorities officers, derailed vacation plans for untold numbers of vacationers and is predicted to price the airline as much as $825 million.
“They have been the Grinch airline that stole Christmas,” stated Mike Boyd, president of aviation consultancy Boyd Group Worldwide.
In his electronic mail to loyal members, Jordan stated “nearly all” of the baggage nonetheless separated from their homeowners had been returned by the tip of final week and “nearly all” of the refunds had been processed. Staff nonetheless deal with “tens of 1000’s of reimbursement requests” on daily basis.
“We fell wanting your expectations and the excessive requirements we maintain of ourselves, and we’re deeply sorry,” Jordan wrote. “It’s our agency dedication to make the adjustments crucial to deal with the problems we face and win again your belief.”
Boyd stated that Jordan seems to be taking the required steps to deal with the issues that plagued the airline.
“They’re on it,” he stated. “There is not any query: you do not repair one thing like this in a single day.”
Journey analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Ambiance Analysis Group, stated he want to see extra particulars from Southwest, equivalent to a timeline for a overview and what exact know-how enhancements are being made.
He hopes some vacationers will need the identical data earlier than they really feel snug rebooking with Southwest, particularly contemplating the airline suffered cascading cancellations on a smaller scale in October 2021.
“Southwest has now, twice in 15 months, confirmed to be tangibly inferior to its rivals in its means to get better from weather-related disruptions,” he stated.
Harteveldt stated he believes the issues have shaken the corporate’s management and board “to the core” and that they understand they should make smarter investments of their know-how shifting ahead.
“I feel Southwest is dedicated to doing all the things we are able to to forestall an outage just like the one we noticed in December from taking place once more,” he stated. “I feel we have now to be honest to the airline in recognizing that it takes a number of work to do this and that the method will likely be one in all incremental progress and enchancment.”