The flight cancellation scandal: Southwest’s CEO warns of further disruptions
The string of flight cancellations continues, with the airline explaining that it will take time to get back to normal after the heavy load created by the chaos over the Christmas weekend
The CEO of Southwest Airlines admitted that passengers should be prepared for further flight cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday, as thousands were left stranded at airports over the Christmas weekend, creating huge congestion.
“We’ve had a tough day,” CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview on Monday, adding: “And with a high probability, we’ll have another tough day. It’s the biggest event I’ve ever seen.”
Remember, the airline, which is the fourth largest in the United States in terms of the number of passengers, canceled more than 70% of its flights on Monday and more than 60% of those scheduled for Tuesday.
Southwest warned it would run just over a third of its normal schedule in the coming days to allow crews to get back to where they need to be: “It’s obviously going to have an even bigger impact on our customers,” Jordan added.
“But we have to get through it. We have to get to the point where we are reliable and we get our customers, our crews and our planes back on the runway,” he said.
The airline seems to have been hit the hardest by the stormiest weather to hit the United States, more than the other companies. American Airlines, as well as United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellation rates of between zero and 2% on Tuesday.
Of the approximately 2,950 cancellations recorded on Tuesday, 2,549 were canceled by Southwest Airlines.
The alarmingly high cancellation rate caught the attention of the Biden administration, which called the unusual event “disproportionate and unacceptable,” with the Department of Transportation promising to investigate what happened. At the same time, the company’s stock fell by more than six percent.
Executives at the Dallas-based airline pointed to heavier than expected fog, a lack of personnel at the fuel supplier and outdated technological systems as reasons for the complete chaos. Also, frozen planes in Denver and Chicago – two cities where the company has a lot of traffic – caused major delays.
Finally, Southwest reached out to customers and apologized, assuring everyone affected by the cancellations that they would get their money back. “We will honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel and alternative transportation,” it said.
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