Southwest executive tells Senate 'we messed up' in holiday travel chaos
Southwest COO Andrew Watterson apologized before a Senate panel Thursday for the carrier’s December meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers over the holidays. Watterson said the carrier will have a key software upgrade in place on Friday to avoid a similar event. “Let me be clear: we messed up. In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience,” Watterson said in prepared testimony. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend, according to the company. Southwest has said it canceled more than 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31. The issues started with severe winter weather around the US, but the carrier lacked the technology to keep pace with the numerous flight changes, prompting the airline to scrap most of its schedule for several days to reset its operation. The chaos pushed Southwest to a loss in the last quarter, costing it $800m in pretax earnings. Watterson told reporters outside of the hearing on Thursday that executive bonuses would be reduced this year because of the meltdown. Southwest has been refunding passengers and reimbursing additional expenses like flights on other airlines and hotel stays, costing the airline hundreds of millions of dollars. The airline has paid out more than 96% of the reimbursement requests, and the remaining ones have been recently submitted, Watterson said. “Anything that was well documented and under $4,000 our representative approved on the spot” while anything above was elevated to supervisors, Watterson told reporters. “We reimbursed tire chains, strollers, car seats, pet sitting but things we didn’t reimburse were things like $7,000 shopping sprees at luxury stores or chartering a private jet.” The incident capped a year of chaotic travel for many passengers as airlines struggled to ramp up to meet a rebound in demand. Pressure on the industry has grown over the last year while some lawmakers and the Biden administration seek stronger consumer protection. Some lawmakers outlined Thursday the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars their constituents were forced to pay to get home during the holiday travel chaos.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-02-10/unaligned/southwest-executive-tells-senate-we-messed-up-in-holiday-travel-chaos
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Southwest executive tells Senate 'we messed up' in holiday travel chaos
Southwest COO Andrew Watterson apologized before a Senate panel Thursday for the carrier’s December meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers over the holidays. Watterson said the carrier will have a key software upgrade in place on Friday to avoid a similar event. “Let me be clear: we messed up. In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience,” Watterson said in prepared testimony. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend, according to the company. Southwest has said it canceled more than 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31. The issues started with severe winter weather around the US, but the carrier lacked the technology to keep pace with the numerous flight changes, prompting the airline to scrap most of its schedule for several days to reset its operation. The chaos pushed Southwest to a loss in the last quarter, costing it $800m in pretax earnings. Watterson told reporters outside of the hearing on Thursday that executive bonuses would be reduced this year because of the meltdown. Southwest has been refunding passengers and reimbursing additional expenses like flights on other airlines and hotel stays, costing the airline hundreds of millions of dollars. The airline has paid out more than 96% of the reimbursement requests, and the remaining ones have been recently submitted, Watterson said. “Anything that was well documented and under $4,000 our representative approved on the spot” while anything above was elevated to supervisors, Watterson told reporters. “We reimbursed tire chains, strollers, car seats, pet sitting but things we didn’t reimburse were things like $7,000 shopping sprees at luxury stores or chartering a private jet.” The incident capped a year of chaotic travel for many passengers as airlines struggled to ramp up to meet a rebound in demand. Pressure on the industry has grown over the last year while some lawmakers and the Biden administration seek stronger consumer protection. Some lawmakers outlined Thursday the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars their constituents were forced to pay to get home during the holiday travel chaos.<br/>
