DALLAS — A top Southwest Airlines executive testified before Congress on Thursday about the December travel meltdown, which attributed to a $220 million net loss for the Dallas-based airline in the fourth quarter.
Southwest canceled about 16,700 flights over the last 10 days of December. The meltdown began with a winter storm, but Southwest continued to struggle long after most other airlines had recovered, in part because its crew-scheduling system became overloaded. Union officials said they had warned the airline for years about the system, especially after similar but less severe flight disruptions in October 2021.
In a four-hour Senate hearing, Southwest COO Andrew Watterson fielded questions from frustrated lawmakers.
“Let me be clear, we messed up," Watterson said in his opening statement.
ABC News has reported possible evidence showing more than 500 flights went out without passengers on them.
Watterson laid out plans to spend millions to upgrade deicing systems and $1.3 billion for technology. He said a new crew rescheduling software will go into place Friday.
“The bigger issue that led to that, that led to our processes and technology being overwhelmed is how we handled winter operations," he said.
The U.S. Transportation Department said in January it was investigating whether Southwest Airlines deceived customers by knowingly scheduling more flights in late December than it realistically could handle. The department said that scheduling too many flights would be considered an unfair and deceptive practice under federal law.
The head of the airline’s pilot union called the unique point-to-point system a strength and said the real issues were outdated software and operations.
“Despite many opportunities, Southwest management did not listen to its pilots and frontline employees who saw this meltdown coming," Capt. Casey Murray, the SWPA president, said.
The December holiday travel failure cost Southwest $800 million in lost revenue and higher expenses including premium pay for employees and reimbursing customers for hotels and alternate flights.
Southwest has returned all but 200 bags with no markings or IDs. Watterson said they’ve reimbursed nearly 275,000 customers with about 11,000 left to go.
“The root cause was how we handled our winter operations and that’s where you will see us put some focus over a multi-year period because that’s what’s started the dominoes falling," Watterson said.
Southwest COO Andrew Watterson was expected to speak at the hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Representatives from the pilots' union are also expected to speak at the hearing.
Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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