Making travel plans? Southwest’s holiday meltdown may be a sign of air travel drama to come

  • 📰 chicagotribune
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 43 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 21%
  • Publisher: 91%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

As climate change continues to make once-extreme weather events more routine, and airlines pack more passengers onto planes to increase efficiency and lower prices, a single disruption can throw the whole air travel system into chaos.

The Dallas-based airline has pledged to do better. Southwest’s chief executive said the company would invest more than $1 billion to upgrade its IT system, and on Thursday during the first quarterly investor call since the fiasco, company executives spent significant time pledging that the year-end failures would not be repeated. In all, the company canceled more than 16,700 flights, sharply more than other airlines, which recovered faster from the multi-state storms than Southwest did.

“There are things we need to work on as we continue to grow this operation,” Jordan said during the call. The lack of hubs also means Southwest can spread out its labor costs instead of needing large numbers of employees during peak times at locations where many planes arrive at the same time. If a location has less demand than expected, it’s easier to move planes than relocate an entire hub.However, the hub-and-spoke network is more resilient because there are more pilots and crew members in a single location.

“We are a very complex network,” said Captain Casey Murray, president of the Southwest pilots union. “It’s much more difficult not only to manage but recover.” During the meltdown, Southwest also was forced to fly more than 700 non-passenger flights to reposition crew and planes, adding to the episode’s financial hit.

Source: Holiday News (holidaynews.net)

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 8. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Southwest Airlines reports loss, customer cancellations: 'That kind of disruption cannot happen again'Southwest reported a $220 million loss after taking a hit of $800 million from canceling around 16,700 flights over the last 10 days of December, according to airline executives during the carrier's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Source: USATODAY - 🏆 100. / 63 Read more »

Southwest Airlines warns of quarterly loss after holiday meltdownSouthwest Airlines Co on Thursday warned of a loss in the current quarter as passengers shunned the carrier in the immediate aftermath of an operational meltdown that forced it to scrap thousands of flights between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Bigger loss in the quarter? Dollars? Or suitcases? Feels like market is working Peanuts…
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

How Southwest Airlines is responding to its holiday meltdown - Dallas Business JournalSouthwest executives spent an hour and a half detailing the steps they are taking to mitigate future problems, including spending $1.3 billion on technology improvements this year.
Source: DallasBizNews - 🏆 525. / 51 Read more »

Southwest Airlines leaders defend tech, schedules and staffing after holiday meltdownSouthwest Airlines’ top executives say the company’s technology, staffing and scheduling plans didn’t fail in late December, even after a holiday meltdown in... xJonNYC AtSouthwest 🙄😡 JUST TAKE OWNERSHIP THAT YOU FAILED
Source: dallasnews - 🏆 18. / 71 Read more »

Southwest's holiday meltdown cost big moneySouthwest Airlines has been in damage-control mode since its December holiday meltdown, working to defend its reputation. The airline said today the snafu cost it $800 million in the fourth quarter (around $620 million on an after-tax basis). And still not enough leg room They also lost something even more precious. They lost trust. But it made for some pretty funny comedy 😉
Source: axios - 🏆 302. / 63 Read more »

Southwest projects more losses ahead due to operational meltdownSouthwest Airlines reported a fourth quarter net loss Thursday, and warned that another loss is expected for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 due to its holiday operational meltdown. Americans should support this airline and make sure they don’t go under.
Source: FoxBusiness - 🏆 458. / 53 Read more »