U.S. senators blast Southwest vacation meltdown, labeled ‘unmitigated catastrophe’

By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Southwest Airways on Thursday confronted harsh criticism from U.S. senators at a listening to investigating the airline’s meltdown that disrupted journey plans for two million prospects, with one lawmaker calling the scenario an “unmitigated catastrophe.”

Senators recounted to Southwest a litany of horrendous journey tales: Folks lacking funerals and vacation gatherings, passengers pressured to drive for 17 or extra hours throughout the nation after flights have been canceled and most cancers sufferers who couldn’t get therapy.

The airline and its pilot union supplied sharply contrasting causes for the low-cost service’s huge journey disruptions. Whereas Southwest cited climate impacts, the union singled out poor preparation and a failure to modernize expertise.

Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen known as it an “unmitigated catastrophe” that had a “devastating influence on households.”

Ted Cruz, the highest Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, known as the cancellation of greater than 16,000 flights “an epic screwup” however mentioned he was assured Southwest executives “are dedicated to doing every part attainable to stop its recurrence.”

Southwest Chief Working Officer Andrew Watterson informed reporters that the airline has already paid a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in compensation and reimbursements for bills and can minimize 2022 bonuses to executives when they’re awarded in March.

“Govt bonuses for 2022 might be lowered due to this,” he mentioned.

Watterson mentioned it has obtained about 284,000 instances from passengers impacted by meltdown and reimbursed greater than 273,000 — leaving 10,782. He mentioned these nonetheless below evaluate had been submitted extra lately.

“We reimbursed tire chains, strollers, automotive seats, pet sitting, however issues we did not reimburse have been issues like $7,000 buying sprees at luxurious shops or chartering a non-public jet,” Watterson mentioned, including that 96% of claims have been accomplished.

Watterson mentioned that any passenger declare that was properly documented and below $4,000 might be paid on the spot, whereas larger requests went to a supervisor.

He acknowledged that the airline made errors and that expertise points have been an element. He mentioned the service is introducing an up to date crew scheduling system on Friday to deal with a selected failure in the course of the meltdown.

“Let me be clear: we tousled.” After detailing what went improper, he added that “none of that is an excuse.” He admitted: “There have been expertise points in the course of the disruption — we do not dispute that.”

Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell mentioned, “We’re all the time going to have these climate occasions and a few of us consider they will develop into extra extreme. However what we wish is to have a system that is able to tackle that.”

Cantwell mentioned Southwest Chief Govt Officer Bob Jordan, who had been invited to the listening to, “did not wish to present up.” Southwest mentioned the listening to conflicted with different commitments, together with an worker rally in Baltimore on Wednesday.

The meltdown brought on the cancellation of virtually 17,000 flights and is estimated to have value the airline greater than $1 billion. It has additionally prompted a lawsuit from shareholders and a Division of Transportation investigation.

The Dallas-based airline attributed the breakdown in service to a “historic” winter storm, each in measurement and scale, that brought on frozen jet bridges and icy plane engines.

However Southwest’s pilot union, which is in contract negotiations with the airline, blamed the corporate and its management for a “failure” to modernize crew administration processes and expertise and to arrange for the storm.

Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airways (NYSE:) Pilots Affiliation (SWAPA), mentioned that the union has been sounding the alarm concerning the service’s crew scheduling expertise and “outdated” operational processes for years.

“Sadly, these warnings have been summarily ignored,” he mentioned.

The debacle has put Jordan within the eye of a storm as he faces strain to revive the airline’s credibility and regain the belief of consumers only one yr after he took the helm. Jordan has apologized and brought duty for the troubles, vowing to stop a repeat.

Murray mentioned that whereas Jordan inherited a “huge, advanced operation held collectively by duct tape and baling wire,” he should present via actions that the corporate is severe about change.