Southwest Airlines Co. had enough employees to manage its December flight plans, Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said after regulators opened an investigation over whether the carrier had expanded operations beyond what it could handle.
(Bloomberg) — Southwest Airlines Co. had enough employees to manage its December flight plans, Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said after regulators opened an investigation over whether the carrier had expanded operations beyond what it could handle.
“We know for a fact we were absolutely staffed to operate our schedules,” Jordan said Thursday in an interview. “I do not believe the issue was staffing.”
The Dallas-based airline will “be cooperative and collaborate with” any US Transportation Department inquiry over the operations breakdown during the holiday travel period, he said. The executive pointed to Southwest’s steady performance during the rest of December and over the Thanksgiving stretch as evidence of sufficient staff levels. Southwest already is working to update its crew scheduling software and review other systems.
The federal agency said Wednesday that it’s in the early stage of a probe into whether Southwest had “unrealistic scheduling of flights, which under federal law is considered an unfair and deceptive practice.” DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg has pressured the airline to quickly refund fares and repay passenger expenses incurred when Southwest canceled more than 16,700 flights in late December.
Southwest has completed 99% of refunds requested to date and will have finished 95% of reimbursements by Friday for costs such as hotels, meals and booking on other airlines, Jordan said. All bags lost during the turmoil have been returned.
Costs tied to the cancellations shouldn’t have a financial impact on the carrier beyond this quarter, Chief Financial Officer Tammy Romo said in the interview.
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