Apparently, crypto currency exchange (FTX) wasn’t the only business that had a meltdown. The Southwest Airline service also went kaput over this past Christmas weekend. It cancelled 70% of flights yesterday and 87% today.
Those are whopping numbers. Not to mention the number of air passengers stranded and had to be rescheduled. Surely, no body likes to be stuck in the airport. Which is only a transition point to the final destinations.
SWA blames its fiasco on the cold weather – act of god beyond the airline’s control. To certain extent the weather played into the equation, along with the high volume of holiday travels. But here is the thing: no other airlines cancelled as many flights as the SWA during this past weekend.
What went wrong? Why the SWA can’t handle the volume while others could? The root cause is its outdated flight planning software according to the company’s pilot and flight attendant unions. A similar problem happened in 2021, The four day meltdown costed the SWA $75 million dollar in revenue hit.
This time it’s going to be more as the New Year weekend is right around the corner.
Do you think the SWA is putting profit before its people?
Running with Buddha 