Southwest Airlines faces a storm of criticism over holiday chaos

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Airlines have experienced historic levels of disruption following a massive winter storm that battered large swaths of the United States during its busiest travel season. Photo: Matthew Hatcher / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP/FileSource: AFP

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Southwest Airlines remained in the hot seat on Tuesday as it faced massive flight cancellations as rival U.S. carriers recovered from a severe winter storm.

The Dallas-based national carrier, which has always enjoyed a solid reputation with consumers, has drawn explanatory and explanatory criticism on social media, where union leaders have also brought to light horror stories of stranded airline employees.

“It’s a complete meltdown,” said Mike Sage, who had planned to fly back to Florida on Monday after visiting Connecticut to tend to his kayaking business north of Orlando, Florida.

After Southwest’s phone and internet system “collapsed”, Sage drove to the airport, waited in line for two hours, and finally got a replacement ticket for Saturday from Southwest.

But it came with a warning, Sage told AFP.

“When (the stewardess) handed me the ticket, she looked me in the eye and said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t be counting on this flight either. I would book with another airline. We have crews stranded everywhere, pilots sleeping on the floor at airports.'”

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At issue is Southwest’s performance following a brutal winter storm that began before Christmas, wreaking havoc on holiday travel networks and killing some 50 people.

But while operations were largely back to normal at American Airlines and United Airlines on Tuesday, Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights, or nearly two-thirds of scheduled departures, according to tracking website FlightAware.

This is in addition to some 8,150 flights canceled in the previous five days, according to the website.

The debacle weighed on the company’s stock and drew attention in Washington.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is “concerned about Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays,” the agency said on Twitter Monday.

“The Department will review whether the cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is meeting its customer service plan.”

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President Joe Biden, retweeting the DOT statement, urged consumers to check if they are eligible for compensation.

System overload

Southwest apologized for the debacle, describing the inconvenience to customers as “unacceptable.”

“We were full and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when inclement weather swept across the continent,” a company statement said Monday.

“As we continue work to recover our operations, we have made the decision to continue to operate a reduced schedule by flying approximately one-third of our schedule over the next few days.”

Airline officials have acknowledged that outdated systems are contributing to the problems.

Southwest general manager Bob Jordan alluded to a “lack of tools,” adding in a Dec. 25 message to employees that the airline was “in the process of upgrading some of these systems,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Southwest Airlines has come under intense scrutiny for its performance following a blizzard that wreaked havoc over the Christmas holiday period. Photo: Rob Carr / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP/FileSource: AFP

Unions pointed to chronic underinvestment as one of the drivers of the problems.

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Lyn Montgomery, president of TWU Local 556, which represents flight attendants in the Southwest, posted screenshots of flight attendants waiting more than seven hours to receive assignments and information on Twitter. on the hotel.

In a press release titled “Southwest Airlines Ruins Christmas for Flight Attendants,” the TWU said the holiday nightmare “indicates a lack of responsibility over many years to invest in and implement technology that could help solve many issues that plague flight attendants as well as passengers.”

The TWU, along with the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), have become mired in labor negotiations with Southwest over a new contract.

SWAPA members picketed Southwest management outside the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month during an investor day in which executives reinstated the investor dividend “instead of focusing on frontline employees directly responsible for record revenues,” a SWAPA press release said.

During the Investor Day, Jordan and other Southwest executives highlighted the investment in a new revenue management IT system.

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Like its rivals, Southwest has hiring drives to add pilots and other employees, amid an industry-wide labor shortage that has reduced the capacity of the industry throughout 2022.

At Investor Day on Dec. 7, Jordan said he was confident the company would enter into contracts with unions.

Restoring the dividend was a priority to “return value to our shareholders,” said Jordan, who added that reviving share buybacks would have to wait.

“We have to invest in our people,” he said. “Right now it’s about making deals and investing in them.”

Shares of Southwest fell 4.8% to $34.37 in the early afternoon.

Source: AFP

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