Southwest Airlines continued its struggle to recover from the arctic weather system known as a “bomb cyclone” that descended on the continental U.S. over the Christmas holiday weekend as operations personnel on Tuesday scrambled to realign flight crew positioning and accommodate stranded passengers. The situation at Southwest left customers stuck throughout the U.S. as the airline cut two-thirds of its schedule on Monday and confirmed plans to operate roughly a third of its normal service capacity until at least Thursday.
In a statement, Southwest called the “challenges” faced by customers and employees unacceptable.
“We’re working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us,” it said. “We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. These operational conditions forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity.”
In a statement released on social media, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) agreed with the airline’s characterization of the situation as unacceptable, adding that it will examine Southwest's operational readiness for events such as the recent winter storm.
In an interview with AIN, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) president Casey Murray placed the blame squarely on management’s failure to adequately address deficiencies in scheduling processes.
“Here's really the simplest way that I've tried to explain it: Southwest can't connect pilots to airplanes. That's their failure,” said Murray. “At the start of any given day, whether it was two years ago, five years ago, yesterday, we are staffed and have the pilots…it’s fragility of the network that's the problem. It is when something happens and their outdated programs start trying to work solutions that the failures start.”
Murray noted that flight attendants have encountered the same problem because they work under the same outdated scheduling system. Members of both groups have found themselves flying what he called “circular deadheads” created by an automated scheduling system called SkySolver, a proprietary program whose genesis traces back to the 1990s.
“I've got hundreds of examples of circular deadheads,” he reported. “I saw one where a Baltimore pilot shows up at the airport and he's been reassigned a deadhead from Baltimore to Manchester, [New Hampshire]. He then had to overnight in Manchester, deadhead to Nashville, deadhead to Chicago, and deadhead to Baltimore. So he's gone in a huge circle. He has done no work, he has produced no revenue. And that pilot is lost for the day.”
Murray explained that the union has suggested solutions to the problem for five years and that the subject remains a central point of contention in ongoing contract negotiations. Although Murray concedes that the airline’s point-to-point network model has challenged Southwest dispatchers more than those at airlines using a hub-and-spoke system, he insisted they could manage the situation with the “right tools.”
In a letter to union members sent Monday, Murray cited “numerous and ever-increasing meltdowns” over the past 20 months as evidence of a broken system. “Southwest has had enough crews in place to operate the planned schedule,” he wrote. “It’s not until SkySolver and scheduling roulette begin that the network spirals out of control. The company’s failed solution? Hire more. Add reserves. Optimize and reassign pilots online. We aren’t undermanned. We’re undermanaged. Even with the correct number of pilots on any given day, the house of cards falls, and fall it does with ever-increasing frequency and severity.”
While Murray expressed concern that his efforts to speak with Southwest CEO Bob Jordan have gone unanswered, the airline’s written statement contained a measure of contrition to passengers and employees.
“Our employees and crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every single way,” it said. “We are beyond grateful for that. Our shared goal is to take care of every single customer with the hospitality and heart for which we’re known. On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our employees.
“With no concern higher than ultimate safety, the people of Southwest share a goal to take care of each and every customer. We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”