![]() ![]() In contrast to Southwest's "point to point" model, most airlines use a "hub-and-spoke" system, in which planes typically return to a hub airport after flying out to other cities. In another New York Times report on the situation, we learn that: ![]() In addition, Southwest lacks agreements with other airlines and could not rebook passengers on competitors' flights, forcing many people to wait days until Southwest clears its backlog. These frontline employees are not to blame for mistakes at the leadership level. Inadequate computer systems made it difficult to shift crews to where they were needed most. I recognize that Southwest's employees, from customer service agents to ground staff to flight crews, are working extremely hard, under trying circumstances, to help the airline return to normalcy. As Southwest acknowledges, the cancellations and significant delays at least since December 24 are due to circumstances within the airline's control. Yesterday, (12/28) Southwest canceled 59 percent of its flights, while other major airlines canceled 3 percent. Other airlines that experienced weather related cancellations and delays due to the winter storm recovered relatively quickly, unlike Southwest. While weather can disrupt flight schedules, the thousands of cancellations by Southwest in recent days have not been because of the weather. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg didn't mince words, placing the blame squarely on management: The vast snowstorm exposed other vulnerabilities in Southwest's network. The problem was more than just the weather. Signs of impending problems, similar but less extreme, occurred in 2021. They do a great job of turning their planes around – except when what happens? Their communication system breaks down - and that's what happened here on a system-wide basis. They cross-train their staff - that means the guy who does your bag can also push the plane out. They're known for getting their planes in and out in 20 to 25 minutes. Of all the airlines that could melt down, I was really surprised it would be Southwest - because think about this. CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg joined CBS 2 Streaming Anchor Brad Edwards to talk about the mass of Southwest Airlines flight cancellations. Industry experts expressed surprise that Southwest could fail so spectacularly. Some passengers, unable to rebook Southwest flights, rented cars or spent hundreds of dollars buying tickets on other airlines. Southwest said in a statement on Wednesday that it planned to fly one-third of its scheduled flights for the next several days as it tried to return to normal operations, meaning it would continue to cancel close to 2,500 flights a day. More than 2,500 flights, or 62 percent of its planned flights on the 28th, had been canceled. By the 28th, about 87% of all canceled flights in the US were from Southwest alone. Delta had the fewest with only 15 cancellations. In comparison, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines each canceled fewer than 40 flights by the 28th. Southwest Airlines canceled roughly 15,750 flights in the seven days from the 22nd to the 28th, at a rate of 17%, 30%, 35%, 33%, 66%, 72% and 62%, respectively. The near-collapse of Southwest Airlines service, when winter weather began disrupting air travel on Thursday, December 22, 2022, exposed troubling questions about the airline: obsolete technology, tone-deaf executives and a business model that couldn't scale.Īccording to industry tracker FlightAware, the extent of the debacle was reported in the New York Times article What Caused the Chaos at Southwest?: This is a cautionary tale of a legendary company that depleted investment in a core IT technology, while draining cash reserves for stock buy-back to reward executives with seven-figure compensation.Īs a result, it ruined the holiday season for perhaps a million stranded passengers and may have permanently damaged the company. 2022 was the year of glowing reports of organizations applying digital technology, especially cloud computing, AI, distributed data architecture and analytics, to drive "digital transformation." ![]()
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