Vowing to avoid a repeat of catastrophic holiday delays that stranded thousands of passengers last year, Southwest Airlines Co.’s leader said the company was “absolutely ready” for an impending travel crush. The carrier has overhauled its operations since then, according to CEO Bob Jordan, from added workers and improved training to new cold-weather equipment and revamped technology. “We are ready for the winter, absolutely ready,” he said Wednesday. The stakes for Southwest are high. Last December’s crisis, when its systems were overwhelmed by a storm over multiple days, cost the Dallas-based company nearly $1.2b. It also drew intense scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and passengers, and led the airline to cut executives’ pay. “It was an ugly week,” Jordan said. “But that week does not define Southwest Airlines.” The CEO has acknowledged short-term reputational damage following the meltdown, but he said that there was “no indication” that customers continue to avoid Southwest. The company earlier Wednesday said leisure demand “remains strong” going into the year-end holidays and certain business bookings have been at the higher end of its expectations in November and December. It raised the low end of its revenue forecast for Q4.<br/>
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Southwest Wednesday raised its forecast for Q4 fuel costs, sending its shares down 1.4% in premarket trading. The carrier, however, expects unit revenue for the quarter to improve to the higher end of its previous guidance range on the back of strong leisure demand. Southwest forecast economic fuel costs of $3.00 to $3.10 per gallon, compared with its previous estimate of $2.90 to $3.00 per gallon. It expects operating revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to be down in the range of 9% to 10% year-over-year. The airline had earlier expected its RASM to fall in the range of 9% to 11%.<br/>
Southwest has slashed its advertising dollars on X as the carrier increasingly interacts with customers outside of social media. “Our spend is down significantly,” Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said Wednesday in an interview, adding that the pullback extends to other platforms besides X. “We are in the middle of evaluating that right now.” The shift is noteworthy for an industry that has long communicated with passengers — satisfied or otherwise — through social media. Airline customers have used X, the Elon Musk-owned site formerly known as Twitter, to voice complaints about travel issues or other problems and gain the attention of customer service workers monitoring social media feedback. Southwest now sees its customers interacting differently with the carrier. Southwest has been increasing digital communications with customers through texts and new capabilities on its mobile app, and is continuing work on tools to allow passengers to resolve more issues themselves on personal devices. “We still have some of our customer relations folks focused to make sure we get to those customers,” Whitney Eichinger, Southwest’s chief communications officer, said of X. “But I think we are seeing fewer comments on X from customers as I see more and more folks just kind of deviate from the platform.” A representative for the social-media platform didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.<br/>
Federal investigators say the tail of a JetBlue plane struck a Colorado runway during takeoff last year when the captain quickly pointed the jet’s nose upward to get airborne and avoid a head-on crash with a plane preparing to land on the same runway. The NTSB said Wednesday that the JetBlue captain pointed the nose of his jet up more quickly than normal “due to his surprise about encountering head on landing traffic.” The crew of the other plane, a Beechcraft King Air 350, was startled when the JetBlue plane announced that it was beginning to taxi on to the runway. The King Air was still more than 9 kilometers from the airport, but closing fast. “I hope you don’t hit us,” the King Air crew said to the JetBlue pilots. The JetBlue captain and co-pilot said they never saw the other plane, but they veered to the right after takeoff to avoid traffic that was detected by the collision-avoidance system on their jet. The NTSB said flight data indicates that the planes were about 4.2 km apart when the JetBlue Airbus A320 began its climbing right turn away from the airport.<br/>
Southwest Airlines has a reputation for an especially friendly plus-size traveler policy, which allows passengers of size to get empty adjacent seats for free as available. According to the policy, “customers who encroach upon any part of the neighboring seat(s)” are eligible for complimentary open adjacent seating. Southwest uses the armrests as the guide for seat boundaries, and its plus-size policy applies to passengers who cannot comfortably fit into the width of one seat. “The armrest is considered to be the definitive boundary between seats; the width of the narrowest and widest passenger seats (in inches) is available on our Flying Southwest page,” the policy says. Plus-size passengers are encouraged to preemptively purchase extra seats to notify the airline of their need for accommodation, and Southwest guarantees a refund for those purchases after the flight. The airline says this policy has been in place for decades.<br/>
Spanish low-cost airline Volotea plans to increase its fleet to 45 commercial aircraft next year up from 41 now as it plans to expand its short- and medium- haul route network, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. The company, which mainly connects mid-sized cities in Europe and northern Africa, currently operates a fleet of A319 and A320 Airbus airliners, she said, without specifying which airplanes Volotea would add or whether it would buy or lease them. The airline has repeatedly said it was ultimately planning to list its shares on the stock market and it is keeping an eye on the remedies the European Commission is likely to impose on Iberia owner IAG ICAG.L to approve the takeover of Spanish rival AirEuropa. "Our interest is focused on short and medium-haul routes, which are the ones we have operated since 2012 in Europe," as opposed to the routes between Spain and Latin America operated by Air Europa, the spokesperson said. Beside IAG's different airlines, Air Europa and Volotea, Irish behemoth Ryanair and easyJet also operate from Spanish airports as do smaller players such as privately owned IberoJet and Binter.<br/>