Southwest Airlines faces a storm of criticism over holiday chaos

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More than 10,000 flights canceled over the Christmas holidays, chaos at airports across America: Southwest Airlines found itself in the hot seat on Tuesday as the airline behind the lion’s share of weather-related travel chaos .

The Dallas-based national carrier, which has always enjoyed a solid reputation with consumers, has drawn swearing 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 return to Florida on Monday after visiting Connecticut to take care of his kayaking business.

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.'”

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, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling it an “unacceptable situation” on CNN.

“The rate of cancellations and delays on Southwest Airlines is unacceptable and significantly higher than that of other US carriers,” the Department of Transportation said in a statement to AFP.

The story continues

The agency said it expects the airline to compensate travelers for losses suffered as well as to “do the right thing” by their pilots, flight attendants and other staff, and threatened to take action against Southwest if it did not comply.

President Joe Biden retweeted the agency’s statement and Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, pledged to follow through.

“Southwest Airlines’ problems over the past few days go beyond the weather,” Cantwell said. “The Committee will look into the causes of these disruptions and their impact on consumers.”

– 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.

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

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 is Ruining 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 of the problems that plague flight attendants and passengers alike.”

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,” the association said in a statement.

At the meeting, Jordan and other Southwest executives highlighted investment in a new IT system for revenue management and Jordan also expressed confidence that 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.”

Market analysis website Briefing.com said in a note that the costs to Southwest from vacation issues “will likely be significant, at least in the short term” in terms of higher consumer expenses and reimbursements.

“However, we doubt this debacle – severe as it is – will have any real lasting effect on Southwest,” Briefing said, adding that negative consumer sentiments “will eventually wear off.”

Southwest shares fell 6.0% to $33.94.

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