Southwest chaos is told-you-so moment after warnings on old tech
The Southwest Airlines meltdown that’s stranded thousands of passengers across the US has its root in outdated technology that analysts and its unions have warned about for years. “People have a right to be really angry and annoyed,” Cowen Inc. analyst Helane Becker said Wednesday. “They should have invested years ago in these systems and they just didn’t.” Southwest’s travails are dragging on with more than 2,500 flights canceled Wednesday and a similarly bleak outlook for Thursday, while its rivals have largely recovered from the arctic blast that swept the nation Christmas weekend. The “heartfelt” apologies offered by the airline and CEO Bob Jordan may be cold comfort to passengers who have been stranded at airports, missing luggage or holiday time with their families. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Jordan on Tuesday that the department, expects that Southwest meet its obligations to passengers and workers and take steps to prevent a situation like this from happening again. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, said her panel will be investigating. Southwest’s system — flying point to point instead of the hub-and-spoke regime used by rivals — is a point of pride, deeply embedded in its five-decade history and helps it reach many medium-size markets. But the behind-the-scenes technology that makes it possible to schedule crews and aircraft all proved brittle this week, just as it did in a similar systemic collapse in October 2021. When the computers weren’t up to the task, humans had to step in hunt down pilots and flight crews by telephone. “The fact is this is not the same airline that Herb Kelleher built where planes went point-to-point,” said Randy Barnes, president of TWU Local 555, which represents Southwest’s baggage handlers and other ground workers. “We are now experiencing the same problems as the more traditional airlines,” Barnes said in a statement, adding that “if airline managers had planned better, the meltdown we’ve witnessed in recent days could have been lessened or averted.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-12-29/unaligned/southwest-chaos-is-told-you-so-moment-after-warnings-on-old-tech
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Southwest chaos is told-you-so moment after warnings on old tech
The Southwest Airlines meltdown that’s stranded thousands of passengers across the US has its root in outdated technology that analysts and its unions have warned about for years. “People have a right to be really angry and annoyed,” Cowen Inc. analyst Helane Becker said Wednesday. “They should have invested years ago in these systems and they just didn’t.” Southwest’s travails are dragging on with more than 2,500 flights canceled Wednesday and a similarly bleak outlook for Thursday, while its rivals have largely recovered from the arctic blast that swept the nation Christmas weekend. The “heartfelt” apologies offered by the airline and CEO Bob Jordan may be cold comfort to passengers who have been stranded at airports, missing luggage or holiday time with their families. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Jordan on Tuesday that the department, expects that Southwest meet its obligations to passengers and workers and take steps to prevent a situation like this from happening again. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, said her panel will be investigating. Southwest’s system — flying point to point instead of the hub-and-spoke regime used by rivals — is a point of pride, deeply embedded in its five-decade history and helps it reach many medium-size markets. But the behind-the-scenes technology that makes it possible to schedule crews and aircraft all proved brittle this week, just as it did in a similar systemic collapse in October 2021. When the computers weren’t up to the task, humans had to step in hunt down pilots and flight crews by telephone. “The fact is this is not the same airline that Herb Kelleher built where planes went point-to-point,” said Randy Barnes, president of TWU Local 555, which represents Southwest’s baggage handlers and other ground workers. “We are now experiencing the same problems as the more traditional airlines,” Barnes said in a statement, adding that “if airline managers had planned better, the meltdown we’ve witnessed in recent days could have been lessened or averted.”<br/>
