Southwest Airlines exec to tell Senate: “We messed up” in holiday meltdown

A prime Southwest Airways government, showing at a Senate listening to on Thursday, plans to ship one other apology for the corporate’s disastrous vacation meltdown.

Driving the information: “Let me be clear: we tousled,” Southwest Airways COO Andrew Watterson will inform the Commerce Committee earlier than being grilled. “In hindsight, we didn’t have sufficient winter operational resilience.”

Why it issues: Southwest’s issues in December set off an intense spherical of scrutiny from each fliers and the federal authorities.

• Greater than 15,000 flight cancellations — sparked by extreme climate, however exacerbated by the airline’s enterprise mannequin and tech points — left vacationers stranded for days.

What went flawed: “[S]ub-zero temperatures, excessive winds, and frozen precipitation had been worse than forecast, which had a wide-ranging affect … particularly at Denver and Chicago Halfway,” Watterson says in his testimony.

• Communication challenges “created an unprecedented quantity and frequency” of crew modifications that overwhelmed the airline’s scheduling course of and know-how.

What’s subsequent: Watterson says Southwest has $1.3 billion budgeted this yr for upgrades and upkeep for its IT system.