Southwest Airlines has entered the prove-it stage of its comeback from its holiday meltdown, which left tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
The airline has delivered all the apologies to its customers, and its executives have made the appropriate mea culpas before Congress. Words go only so far, however, and people want to see how the airline operationally moves past its problems.
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That's following two paths. On one hand, Southwest Airlines (LUV) has huge labor issues with the pilots union and the flight-attendant union. Being in a public war of words with two groups of key employees makes it harder to convince the public that you're moving in the right direction.
The second part of the airline's comeback has gone a little better. Chief Executive Bob Jordan talked about in mid-March:
"We understand the root causes that led to the holiday disruption, and we're validating our internal review with the third-party assessment," he said. "Now, we expect to mitigate the risk of an event of this magnitude ever happening again. Work is well underway implementing action items to prepare for next winter -- with some items already completed."
One of those moves designed to prevent problems will be both applauded and questioned by customers. It's a situation where people will be happy about the change, but many will ask, "wait, why didn't you have this before?"
Image source: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
Southwest Has a New Weather Partner
Southwest recently agreed to a deal with SureWeather, which works with airlines worldwide to help them manage their fleets during winter-weather periods.
"SureWeather (SureWx) is, by far, the world’s largest provider of electronic holdover time solutions. Over 70 global airlines currently implement holdover times and other creative solutions on the flight deck using our platform," the company said on its website.
"We have quietly become one of the world’s largest providers of electronic data solutions for aircraft ground deicing and airport winter operations, and our diverse and global customer base is a testament to the value we provide our partner customers:"
That sounds nice and it's good news for Southwest passengers, but it also feels like something the company should have done before the disaster that was the airline's holiday season.
Southwest Improves Its Winter Operations
SureWeather isn't Southwest's only effort to improve its winter operations. The company has invested heavily in not just software but also equipment to handle snow, ice, and other inclement weather.
"Challenges with infrastructure, winter equipment, and winter-weather preparedness have been, or will be, addressed through various actions, including purchasing additional deicing trucks; securing additional deicing pads and deicing fluid capacity at key network locations; and purchasing more engine covers and engine heaters for cold weather operations," the airline said in a news release.
Southwest has also made clear that people will be part of the solution. The carrier has returned to its prepandemic staffing levels and plans to add more people to help deal with its winter woes.
"Going forward, the airline will further augment winter staffing levels -- for example, when ground-operations employees are limited to the amount of time they can work outside in extreme temperatures," the airline shared.
