{"id":1840899,"date":"2023-02-09T10:50:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T15:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1840899"},"modified":"2023-02-09T10:52:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T15:52:56","slug":"we-messed-up-southwest-executive-testifies-on-holiday-meltdown-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-messed-up-southwest-executive-testifies-on-holiday-meltdown-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We Messed Up\u2019: Southwest Executive Testifies On Holiday Meltdown Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwe-messed-up-southwest-executive-testifies-on-holiday-meltdown-chaos%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1840899&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/southwest-airlines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Southwest Airlines<\/a> Andrew Watterson, COO of the company, said that he and his fellow executives had prepared remarks for a Thursday hearing. \u201cmessed up\u201d amid the company\u2019s holiday <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/air-travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reisen<\/a> meltdown.<\/p>\n<p>Southwest cancelled 16700 Southwest flights between December 21st, and December 31, despite the fact that severe winter weather had subsided in days following Christmas. Watterson stated in his prewritten opening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23602424-written-testimony-of-andrew-watterson-coo-southwest-airlines-final\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Statement<\/a> Before the Senate Commerce Committee, the company stated that disruptions forced them to cancel flights to ensure crews were able to resume normal operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me be clear: we messed up. In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience,\u201d He noted. \u201cIt became clear that, with the storm severely disrupting our Denver and Chicago Midway stations concurrently, we did not have enough resiliency in our operation for the severe effect this winter event had on us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flight schedules for Denver and Chicago Midway, which serve as starting and ending bases for one-fourth of the company\u2019s flight crews, were almost entirely canceled by Southwest in the days before Christmas. As the storm moved eastward, the same happened at other airports around the country. Communication between employees was disrupted by the chaos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis lack of effective communication and coordination resulted in compounding, frequent, close-in flight cancellations, rather than our normal practice of batched pre-cancellations further in advance of departure times,\u201d Watterson continued. \u201cThis created an unprecedented amount and frequency of required changes to crew schedules that overwhelmed our crew scheduling processes and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Southwest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/southwest-reveals-how-much-holiday-flight-meltdown-will-cost-them\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Estimate<\/a> In the wake of cancellations, between $725 million to $825 million will be lost. The company reported a loss of $220million in the fourth quarter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/southwest-airlines-reports-massive-revenue-hit-after-christmas-meltdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Warned<\/a> investors that fallout from the company\u2019s holiday meltdown would continue.<\/p>\n<p>Watterson informed lawmakers that Southwest will seek to improve software used by crewmembers with an investment of $1.3 billion in information technology. Watterson stated that the company had gone &#8220;across the line&#8221; to improve its software. \u201cabove and beyond\u201d The Department of Transportation established standards for airlines that cancel or delay flights. Customers were awarded reward points of $300 to help them reimburse for hotel accommodation, meals, rental cars and tickets they purchased from other carriers in the event of a meltdown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouthwest is intensely focused on reducing the risk of repeating the operational disruption we experienced in December,\u201d Watterson was also mentioned. \u201cWe are committed to running a great operation each and every day, and I have the utmost confidence that our people, processes, and technologies will do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Legislators are expected to present legislation in order to strengthen consumer protections following the Southwest meltdown. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), both of whom are members of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Airline Passengers\u2019 Bill of Rights and the Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous Fees Act last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAir travelers shouldn\u2019t have to foot the bill for basics like a carry-on bag, a seat next to their children, or even for a sip of water, especially as airlines continue to fail passengers at every turn,\u201d Markey stated that in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markey.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/senators-markey-blumenthal-lead-in-introducing-legislation-to-bolster-airline-passenger-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Press release<\/a>. \u201cOur nation\u2019s largest airlines can\u2019t even guarantee consumers that their flights won\u2019t be delayed or cancelled, that their luggage won\u2019t be lost, or that they won\u2019t get stranded at the gate because of overbooking. The status quo won\u2019t fly any longer. We must empower regulators and uphold passengers\u2019 rights so they are treated with dignity before, during, and after their flight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southwest Airlines COO Andrew Watterson said in remarks prepared for a Thursday hearing that he and fellow executives \u201cmessed up\u201d amid the company\u2019s holiday travel meltdown. Southwest canceled some 16,700 flights between December 21 and December 31, even as severe winter weather subsided in the days after Christmas. Watterson said in his prewritten opening statement &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1628187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[7218,5441,3741,7496,5888,18140,7374,8643,7552],"class_list":["post-1840899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-we","tag-chaos","tag-executive","tag-holiday","tag-meltdown","tag-messed","tag-southwest","tag-testifies","tag-up"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}