Southwest Airlines Promises To Improve Its Service Following Complete Operational Meltdown, Here’s How
Southwest airlines has promised to increase its staff and upgrade its equipment to avoid operational meltdowns, like the one that occurred last holiday season following a severe winter storm, in the future.
Southwest Airlines has had a nightmare since the operational crisis during the holiday season. The CEO of the problem-plagued company has promised customers that during next winter they will increase their staff numbers and any equipment they need. The airline company is desperate to avoid another incident that took place three months ago.
It cost the company millions of dollars, but it cost them more in their reputation and publicity. As tens of thousands of Southwest airlines customers were left stranded due to their incompetence, they have been publicly showing there changed ways in an effort to retain future customers.
Southwest Airlines expects to file a loss in the first quarter of this year due to the mass cancellations that occurred late last year and cost the company up to $350 million in lost revenue and compensation.
During the 2022 holiday season, a bomb cyclone swept America, causing all airlines to stop flights. A day or two later, when flights were operational again, Southwest airlines had still not left the ground. They eventually canceled over 16,000 flights over the last ten days of 2022. They claimed that it was the weather at the beginning.
Finally, they admitted it was their outdated technology that caused havoc with their booking system and made them unable to change flights for passengers or update their staffing log.
While Southwest Airlines are experiencing higher overheads this year, they have pledged to purchase more equipment to help remove ice from airplanes and support their staff. They will implement new technology that can help schedule how long the de-icing process will take and have also improved the platform that schedules their staff to ensure that they always have enough staff when things go wrong, or extra staff is needed.
Southwest Airlines have identified the root cause of the flight cancellations over the holiday period and are working with an external company to ensure this will never happen again. They want to reduce any risk of anything like this occurring, as if it did, their company would never recover from such bad press for a subsequent time. They are implementing all these improvements ahead of another busy holiday season later this year.
Southwest Airlines wants to be a major airline that people can rely on. This will never be the case until they invest money in implementing a technological system that can change flights and staff quickly and efficiently. They ruined some people’s holidays as they were scheduled to meet family, friends, and loved ones during what was supposed to be a relaxing and joyous time.
While it is admirable that they admitted their fault in the fiasco, they need to be proactive in righting all their wrongs before at least the winter traveling season, but really they need a lot of changes implemented before the summer season in order for people to regain confidence in their service. It is not the first time a business has failed its customers, and it won’t be the last; it is how they recover now that matters.
