Southwest: ‘We just couldn’t keep up with the volume’
In the days leading up to Christmas, the CE of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, thought the company would quickly recover from the frigid weather that forced thousands of flight cancellations nationwide. But that changed by Dec. 25 when it became clear that the airline’s problems were spiraling out of control. After a sleepless night, Jordan and his team decided that the only way to pull the airline’s operations back from the brink would be to cancel even more flights: around two-thirds of its schedule for several days. In an interview this week, Jordan described how things went so wrong for Southwest. The company’s meltdown disrupted the lives of about 2m customers, ruined countless holiday trips and left travelers sleeping in airport terminals. Regulators and lawmakers are calling for investigations and stiff penalties against the company. More than two weeks after the crisis began, the airline is still trying to fully understand why its operations, long considered by analysts to be among the most efficient in the airline industry, failed so spectacularly. It has hired a consulting firm, Oliver Wyman, to study the debacle. Jordan also said Southwest was working with GE Digital to add new functions to software that the airline uses to assist in scheduling crews. The airline’s scheduling system, often referred to as SkySolver, has been criticized by labor union leaders for not reassigning pilots and flight attendants quickly enough after flights were canceled or delayed, even as other airlines snapped back to normal. Perhaps the most daunting task for Jordan, who has been with Southwest since 1988 but has been CE for less than a year, is regaining the trust of employees and customers. The interview is condensed and edited for clarity.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-01-16/unaligned/southwest-2018we-just-couldn2019t-keep-up-with-the-volume2019
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Southwest: ‘We just couldn’t keep up with the volume’
In the days leading up to Christmas, the CE of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, thought the company would quickly recover from the frigid weather that forced thousands of flight cancellations nationwide. But that changed by Dec. 25 when it became clear that the airline’s problems were spiraling out of control. After a sleepless night, Jordan and his team decided that the only way to pull the airline’s operations back from the brink would be to cancel even more flights: around two-thirds of its schedule for several days. In an interview this week, Jordan described how things went so wrong for Southwest. The company’s meltdown disrupted the lives of about 2m customers, ruined countless holiday trips and left travelers sleeping in airport terminals. Regulators and lawmakers are calling for investigations and stiff penalties against the company. More than two weeks after the crisis began, the airline is still trying to fully understand why its operations, long considered by analysts to be among the most efficient in the airline industry, failed so spectacularly. It has hired a consulting firm, Oliver Wyman, to study the debacle. Jordan also said Southwest was working with GE Digital to add new functions to software that the airline uses to assist in scheduling crews. The airline’s scheduling system, often referred to as SkySolver, has been criticized by labor union leaders for not reassigning pilots and flight attendants quickly enough after flights were canceled or delayed, even as other airlines snapped back to normal. Perhaps the most daunting task for Jordan, who has been with Southwest since 1988 but has been CE for less than a year, is regaining the trust of employees and customers. The interview is condensed and edited for clarity.<br/>
