Southwest Airlines Co. LUV 0.87% on Saturday showed further progress in its bid to regain credibility with regulators and travelers, particularly those whose vacations were cut short by the company’s meltdown last week.
The Dallas-based airline had four Saturday flight cancellations late Saturday afternoon, according to FlightAware. In all, more than 160 flights across all airlines flying to, from, or within the United States have been canceled.
A Southwest spokeswoman said the airline is operating a normal Saturday schedule of about 3,400 flights. Meanwhile, the airline was looking for volunteers among its staff to help customer service representatives catch up on refund requests and reunite customers with missing bags.
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In a video distributed to employees on Friday, Southwest executives expressed optimism about the near-term outlook. “I am very pleased to report that things are going very, very well,” said Bob Jordan, the airline’s chief executive officer.
Andrew Watterson, chief operating officer, said lines have gotten shorter and that the airline expects to offer normal service during the New Year holidays and beyond. In another update on Saturday, he said Southwest had deployed “an army” of people to ship bags back to customers, in some cases using UPS and FedEx to transport lost luggage.
Southwest has expanded its service after a meltdown that resulted in nearly 16,000 canceled flights between December 22nd and 29th. Those cancellations, fueled by the recent winter storm, left thousands of holiday travelers stranded, angry and, in many cases, separated by hundreds of miles from their luggage.
Although the storm caused problems for all airlines, Southwest canceled far more flights and recovered much more slowly than others. Airline executives said the planning system, which is used to revise crew schedules after storms, has been overwhelmed by the volume of changes required. Airline employees fiddled with makeshift manual methods to match available crews and planes.
Southwest Airlines travelers waited for their luggage in Minneapolis on Friday.
Photo: Abbie Parr/Associated Press
To get back on track, the airline has been downsizing for much of this week, operating about a third of its typical schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get crews and planes back into place. The airline resumed its busy flight schedule on Friday.
Southwest’s troubles are far from over. Regulators, lawmakers and union leaders have said they are monitoring the airline’s response to the crisis. Southwest has repeatedly apologized and promised to compensate affected travelers.
“As SWA turns the corner operationally, the focus must remain on promptly compensating passengers affected by last week’s mishap,” said Transport Minister Pete Buttigieg in a tweet Saturday.
One Southwest regular who needs even more reassurance is Allison Whitney, a professor of film and media studies at Texas Tech University. She was scheduled to fly back to Lubbock, Texas from Minnesota on Wednesday, but her Southwest flight was canceled. Faced with the risk of being stranded until the beginning of the New Year, she booked a flight on American Airlines for Friday and made it home.
Ms. Whitney likes Southwest’s baggage and easy transfer policies, and notes that for some of her trips, it may be the only good choice. But she said after this week she might hesitate to rely on Southwest for longer trips until she is satisfied the airline’s computer systems are up to date.
Write to James R. Hagerty at [email protected] and Alison Sider at [email protected]
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