Southwest has no solutions for recent debacle, faces up to $1 bln revenue hit - union official

Southwest has yet to work out how to avoid a meltdown like the one it had last week with the cancellation of nearly 16,000 flights and faces a revenue hit of up to $1b, a top pilots union official said. “They don’t know what it is that they’re going do in terms of corrective action because they haven’t sat down and run the post-mortem on it,” Tom Nekouei, a vice president at the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told Reuters. Nekouei said he and other union leaders had a conference call with the Dallas-based carrier’s Chief Executive Bob Jordan on Monday to discuss the issue. On the call, details of which have not been reported before, Nekouei said the company offered no immediate solutions. The pilots union, which is in heated contract negotiations with Southwest, on Dec. 31 published a letter signed by Nekouei, denouncing company leadership as a “cult” that has spent the last 15 years destroying the airline’s legacy. Before the recent crisis, Southwest had cultivated a reputation for reliable customer service, humorous flight crews and low-cost flights. Southwest canceled the flights in the week ended Dec. 29 due to bad weather and meltdown of its crew scheduling system, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Southwest, which has said it is making “solid progress” to return operations to normal, had no immediate comment on Thursday. The unions have blamed the company’s “outdated” technology and processes for the biggest operational meltdown in its five-decade history that left many upset customers stranded during the holiday travel season. The White House has said Southwest “failed its customers” and the government would seek to fine the low-cost airline if it doesn’t properly reimburse people for their losses. The company, which was sued for not providing refunds to stranded passengers, previously sent an email apology to affected customers.<br/>