Senators Demand Southwest Airlines Accounts for ‘Holiday Crisis’

Jan. 13 (UPI) — A group of senators sent a letter Friday demanding answers from Southwest Airlines over a “holiday crash” that included thousands of canceled flights.

Senator Edward Markey, Massachusetts, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut, co-author of a letter to the airline CEO Robert E. Jordan, who also signed 12 other Democrats, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. after Southwest struggled to get back online following a severe winter storm and an ongoing staffing shortage that has left tens of thousands of passengers and luggage stranded during a busy holiday weekend.

“For consumers across the country, this failure was more than a headache — it was a nightmare,” the senators wrote. “Travelers are stuck across the country for days, forced to spend hours waiting at Southwest customer service reps or queuing at Southwest airport service counters… The airline must look into the causes of this disaster and provide for it. will never happen again.”

They noted that all other major airlines canceled just over 1,000 flights combined, while Southwest canceled more than 7,500 flights between December 27 and 29, at one point cutting more than 86% of its scheduled domestic flights.

“Although winter storm Elliot disrupted flights across the country, all other airlines operating in the United States managed to return to regular flights shortly thereafter, except for Southwest. Southwest must take all necessary steps to ensure this disaster never happens again.” the senators wrote.

The senators went on to ask a series of specific questions about the company’s outdated scheduling software, staffing decisions, ticket refund policies, passenger baggage decisions, and shareholder compensation.

They gave Jordan until February 2 to answer the question of what led to the massive number of delays and flight cancellations in the last week of December.

Earlier this month, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association criticized the airline’s handling of the holiday season crisis, when more than 15,000 flights were canceled due to a system glitch.

the company expects a collapse will cost him between $725 million and $825 million in the fourth quarter.

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