DALLAS — After taking desperate measures to try to stabilize its broken flight operations, Southwest Airlines could have its full schedule restored by Friday in time for another busy holiday travel weekend, company leaders told employees late Wednesday.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, in the midst of the worst operational breakdown in company history, on Monday decided to cut two-thirds of its flights for a few days to try to “reset” the airline after winter weather and a massive technology meltdown forced thousands of cancellations.
Southwest spent the last two days developing a plan to get pilots and flight attendants back into position to resume trips they had originally scheduled before the meltdown. Cutting around 2,500 flights a day has given the carrier the resources to track down flight attendants and pilots scattered across the country and develop a strategy to end the cascading problems that resulted in more than 15,000 cancellations since Dec. 22.
