Posted on 12/29/2022 2:38:45 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Southwest Airlines Co. LUV 3.70%increase; green up pointing triangle executives said the airline is removing limits on ticket sales, rebuilding crew schedules and shuttling baggage as it gears up to resume its full flying schedule on Friday.
The airline canceled nearly two-thirds of its flights Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, part of an effort to dig out from a cascading meltdown after last week’s severe winter storm threw it into disarray. While other airlines were able to recover from the brutal weather within a few days, Southwest continued to spiral.
Southwest has canceled more than 15,000 flights in the past week, according to FlightAware. By midmorning Thursday, the airline had scrubbed 39 flights scheduled for Friday.
Southwest’s top executives told employees that shrinking down had helped. The operation has stabilized, and they said the airline is ready to ramp back up again.
Chief Executive Bob Jordan told employees Thursday morning in a video message that the smaller network is running well—95% of its flights were on time Wednesday—and that the airline is ready to return to normal on Friday.
“Together we did what we needed to do to set ourselves up to operate our regular schedule tomorrow,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
While other airlines were able to recover from the brutal weather within a few days, Southwest continued to spiral.
Probably best to keep the crew associated with the plane as long as possible.
Skysolver software. Flights got canceled due to the weather. It's a bad program. It got overwhelmed. So Southwest had to do everything manually.
I gather this means that Southwest expects to continue in business.
Tom Peters wrote a book in 2006 called In Search of Excellence. Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines was an excellent CEO who rolled up his sleeves and cared for his inferiors. Then in 2004 Gary Kelly managed Southwest Airlines without excellence and without care for his inferiors. Consequently, nothing has improved since 2004. The storm on 12/24/2022 proved that Southwest Airlines was not excellent, did not care about customers and should be closed. Another view:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthwestAirlines/comments/zxg6op/the_history_of_swa_destruction_from_within/
They forced vaccinations on the airlines, they forced dismissal of anyone who declined, they watched as pilots suffered from adverse effects and became to sick to fly and now the left wants to investigate why the airlines aren’t functioning at peak efficiency…
“Apparently the logistics of getting pilots and flight crews to planes was a problem that day.”
That was part one of the problem.
They made it many times worse by failing to cancel flights immediately once they realized the shortfall so that folks did not have to waste their time going to the airport.
Having a problem is bad.
Being unable to realize you have a problem is very bad.
Being unable to act in response to a problem is very very bad.
Southwest also flies arcs instead of the more traditional hub look. That means that there aren’t a lot of turns. Take delta for example. They are based in Atlanta with hubs in map, Detroit and New York. Flights tend to fly from hub to destination and back.
Southwest on the other hand will fly a day that starts in the east and ends in the west. So when the system gets hammered they don’t have planes just laying around and crews as they are all scattered. Once everything got out of position with pilots that are hitting their mandatory rest time they were totally screwed.
Herb is rolling over in his grave. They destroyed everything he built.
its the way they fly point-to-point. most airlines fly from a hub and back. SW flys to the next airport and the plane is then sent on to another destination. Once the system gets behind—it only takes a very few flights—the entire system will fail.
I expect the current CEO to get fired or step down. if criminal or civil penalties are possible he will face them all.
I met Herb Kelleher, he’s the most impressive person I’ve ever met. A true giant.
I flew Southwest once—and got to meet Midway Airport up close and personal.
That was the last time for me—what a dump.
Yes, and this is insider info. SWA is a point-to-point airline. They are not the far more common hub-and-spoke. This requires not intensive following and scheduling. They have a system to do this but it is underpowered, archaic, and has known flaws.
The flaws in the system have in fact long been known. There have been lesser but similar meltdowns before. The pilots union asked the company to make necessary corrections many years ago. They were ignored. Why? Because correcting the discrepancies (1) cost money (2) suggested restructuring (3) offended the sensibilities of certain stakeholders who perceived a threat to their importance (and their fiefdoms).
Executive managers have been weak and tentative, not solving neither the insufficient IT, nor the restructuring problems. The result has been chaos. This would NEVER HAPPENED under Herb Kelleher, RIP, but he’s long gone.
Hope this helps.
I meet Bob Crandel(sp?) CEO of AA at one time. a nice guy.
ALL HAIL BOOTYGAG. Savior or the air travel industry.
You stated Southwest’s problems very well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.