Southwest Airlines’ top executives say the company’s technology, staffing and scheduling plans didn’t fail in late December, even after a holiday meltdown in which 16,700 flights were canceled and the carrier forced the shutdown of two-thirds of its operations.
Facing a Department of Transportation inquiry for “unrealistic scheduling of flights” and a slowdown in bookings to start the year, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan defended the company’s maligned technology systems and operating plans. He also tried to assure travelers that a breakdown of the magnitude that happened in December won’t “ever happen again.”
“Based on what we know at this point, our processes and technology generally worked as designed,” Jordan said during the company’s year-end financial results call Thursday in which Dallas-based Southwest announced a $220 million loss for the last three months of 2022.
