Southwest rolls out plan to prevent future meltdowns

Southwest Airlines will bolster its scheduling software, winter equipment and communication systems as part of a plan to prevent a repeat of its December meltdown.   

In an action plan published Thursday, Southwest said it would purchase additional winter weather equipment and examine whether it needs to add staff at airports that experience extreme cold.

Southwest suffered a historic collapse over the Christmas holiday as severe weather and a scheduling breakdown forced Southwest to cancel nearly 17,000 flights, impacting millions of travelers. Numerous flight crews were unable to get to their destination or were unsure of which flight was theirs.  The carrier was underprepared for the December winter storm, as crews couldn’t de-ice planes fast enough.

Southwest said it would optimize its crew scheduling software and increase its customer service capacity during busy periods. The company said it plans to spend $1.3 billion on technology projects this year, up 25 percent from 2019. 

“It has taken many weeks of work to sort through the complexity of contributing factors. Now, the root causes and lessons learned are guiding our efforts to make Southwest better prepared to handle truly extreme winter weather events as we move forward,” Southwest said in a summary of its plan. 

Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said prior to the December meltdown that Southwest was not prepared for a major disruption such as a winter storm, pointing to the company’s failure to invest in new scheduling technology.  

The fiasco drew scrutiny from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers pressed Southwest to overhaul its scheduling systems. But the meltdown isn’t expected to lead to stricter rules on airlines from Congress. 

Southwest said it will lose around $1 billion on the holiday meltdown between lost revenue, employee bonuses and customer reimbursements. The company pledged to pay for lodging, food and transportation expenses for affected customers amid pressure from the Biden administration. Southwest said that roughly 99 percent of refund and reimbursement requests have been processed.