SouthWest Airlines Set To Resume Schedule

Southwest Airlines has announced that it is set to resume normal schedules on Friday after the  eight-day meltdown that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

In a statement released Thursday — following another bruising day in which a further 2,300 flights were canceled and government officials called for the airline to account for its shortcomings — Southwest said it hoped for minimal disruptions over the New Year’s weekend.

“We are encouraged by the progress we’ve made to realign crew, their schedules, and our fleet,” it said. “With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy.

The statement came with more contrition from the airline.

“We know even our deepest apologies — to our customers, to our employees, and to all affected through this disruption — only go so far,” the statement read.

“We’ve set up a page at Southwest.com/traveldisruption for customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation; as well as to connect customers to their baggage.”
The airline has also begun notifying customers that it expects to fly a “full schedule” on Friday, after more than a week of massive flight disruptions.

An e-mail to a passenger scheduled to fly Southwest on Friday read: “While we have recently experienced operational challenges, we expect to resume a full schedule of flights with minimal disruptions on your day of travel.”

Before the latest announcement, the airline’s chief commercial officer, Ryan Green, had offered his regrets over the collapse of services, promising to rebuild customer relations that have sunk to rock bottom during the busy holiday travel period.

“My personal apology is the first step of making things right after many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” Green said in a video issued Thursday.

“We’re continuing to work to make this up to you, and you’ll continue to hear about that soon. But for now, we’re focused on restoring the reliability and level of customer experience we expect of ourselves, and you expect of us.”

His remarks, which follow earlier apologies from airline CEO Bob Jordan, came as US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his own scathing assessment Southwest’s troubles, calling the situation a complete “meltdown.”

As of 2:45 p.m on thursday, there were almost 2,500 US flights canceled for the day, and almost 2,400 belonged to Southwest. That means 95% of all canceled US flights belonged to Southwest on Thursday.

The most affected airports were some of the same ones slammed the hardest earlier this week: Denver International, Chicago Midway, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, Dallas Love Field, Nashville International and Baltimore/Washington International.