Can Southwest Airlines fix its tech problems? We asked aviation experts. The answer wasn’t encouraging

Will the majority of travelers forgive Southwest Airlines and start buying tickets on the major US air carrier again? To answer the question, it helps to have a deep knowledge in commercial aviation information technology operations, which safe to say, is not something most travelers possess or travel websites offer to consumers researching the latest airfares. Southwest Airlines accepted the blame for its technological meltdown during the holidays, and it has committed over $1 billion to fixing it. The airline conceded what critics had ben saying for years and after the crisis were able to say even more forcefully — and to a much wider, angrier audience. It had not invested enough in scheduling software and as a result didn’t have staff in place properly, and couldn’t catch up once the system started cascading with flight cancellations. According to airline experts who took part in a recent CNBC Technology Executive Council Town Hall, there’s been some signs of panic from the airline in answering this question itself. “People have been booking away from Southwest in January and February. Southwest is, from my perspective, in a moderate state of panic,” said Henry Harteveldt, Atmosphere Research Group president and a travel industry analyst and advisor who formerly worked in airline marketing. He pointed to $29 fare sales, “something I haven’t seen Southwest offer in a long time,” he said. Bonus offers and other incentives to sign up for credit cards, and companion passes for frequent fliers, are other examples of great benefits for passengers worth considering as a return traveler to Southwest, he said, but added, “These are not the actions of an airline that is seeing business flow across the transom at the level they expect.” Leisure travelers will return if the airline can prove its return to a former level of reliability, he said, but business travelers may be more reluctant, he added, depending on where they live and what other flight options they have. The biggest problem, though, isn’t the front-facing consumer efforts but that even a billion-plus dollars on operations spending can’t guarantee that Southwest steers clear of another tech meltdown in the future. Another very bad storm could produce similar results before an effective tech solution can be implemented.<br/>