Southwest customers suffered hundreds of cancelations, delays and other disruptions this summer as the carrier struggled with snowballing problems of bad weather and a lack of staff. Its next CEO, Bob Jordan, vowed not to repeat that. The airline is about halfway to its goal of hiring 5,000 workers this year and has already trimmed its schedule for the rest of 2021 to avoid further service shortfalls. The airline, and others like Spirit and American, set out to operate an ambitious schedule over the summer to try to recover revenues lost during the coronavirus pandemic, but a shortfall of staff exacerbated operational issues. “The next question is the March schedule. We plan to meet that but if we find ourselves not able to hire to meet that we’ll go back and look at modifying the schedule,” Jordan said Thursday. “What we’re not going to do is we’re not going to repeat last summer.” Jordan, who takes the reins from Gary Kelly in February and is a 33-year Southwest employee, told the Skift Global Forum in New York earlier Thursday that the carrier also plans to add 8,000 employees next year. The Dallas-based airline has about 56,000 employees. Hiring has been a challenge. “We’re pulling out every stop,” Jordan said. The airline raised starting pay to $15 an hour and has been offering retention bonuses, referral bonuses as well as additional pay for certain markets with higher costs of living like Denver, he said. Jordan said he was confident that it could reach its goal to add 5,000 workers this fall, but noted competition has been brutal. Employers from retailers to airlines to restaurants have struggled to fill jobs and turned to bonuses and higher pay to attract workers. Story has more.<br/>
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Hungary's Wizz Air is focused on organic growth, its chief supply chain officer said, declining to comment on whether the low-cost airline had recently made a takeover approach for bigger rival easyJet. "Our focus remains organic growth," chief supply chain and legal officer Owain Jones told the AirFinance Journal conference in London on Thursday. Sources have said Wizz was the suitor for easyJet after the British airline said earlier in September it had received an approach but did not name the bidder. Jones said he could not comment on press speculation when asked if Wizz was behind the bid. Wizz Air, which has grown rapidly over the last five years, expanding into western Europe from its eastern European base, has in the past said it wants to expand its presence at London's no.2 airport Gatwick, an easyJet stronghold. Slots at Gatwick may be shortly available after British Airways said earlier on Thursday it was scrapping its short-haul operations from the airport. "We remain as interested in Gatwick as we have been and as I've been saying and as (Wizz CE) Jo Varadi's been saying since the start of the pandemic," he said when asked whether Wizz would bid for the BA slots. Europe's biggest low cost airline Ryanair has questioned whether Gatwick is the right place for low cost airlines, but Wizz said it could make Gatwick work. "We'll only move to an airport if we're going to be operating at the right cost level," said Jones when asked about costs at Gatwick.<br/>
El Al airlines said Thursday it requested $100m in compensation from the government for its strict COVID-19 travel policies and asked the prime minister to help end a stalemate in bailout talks. El Al was particularly vulnerable at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. It has reported losses for three years and had racked up debt to renew its fleet. The company's financial woes were compounded by travel limitations in Israel meant to prevent new outbreaks, and like many airlines around the world it turned to the state for help. It also has new ownership and management, which has been feuding over terms with the government for months. El Al laid off 1,900 employees, nearly one-third of its staff, as part of a recovery plan mandated by the government to receive a $210m aid package earlier in the year, and reduced its fleet to 29 from 45. But that, it has now said, was not enough. "The Israeli aviation sector is perched above a slippery slope, and there is still doubt whether Israeli aviation companies can survive the crisis without government assistance," the CEOs of El Al and two small local rivals wrote to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. They asked him to help settle things in an emergency meeting. In a separate letter to the DG of the Finance Ministry, EL Al CEO Avigal Soreq said his airline was "demanding immediate compensation for $100 million for damages caused to El Al due to decisions by the state."<br/>