John and Lori Ingoldsby, who drove to Denver after the primary leg of their flight on Southwest Airlines was canceled, wait for a flight to complete their trip at Denver International Airport on December 28, 2022 in Denver, Colorado.
Michael Ciaglo | Getty Images
Southwest Airlines‘ chief operating officer, Andrew Watterson, will face questions from a Senate panel next Thursday concerning the carrier’s holiday meltdown that stranded tons of of 1000’s of travelers.
Southwest said the hearing date overlapped with “a previous commitment” for CEO Bob Jordan.
Jordan, who has been CEO for a yr, has vowed to win back travelers’ trust after the debacle, which led to an $800 million pretax hit last quarter and pushed it right into a loss.
Watterson plans to “use the chance to elucidate how we have taken actions to make things right for our Customers since Southwest’s late December disruption, in addition to what we’re doing to mitigate the danger of it happening again,” the airline said in a press release.
The incident has drawn increased scrutiny from Washington and capped a yr of on-and-off disruptions in air travel, as a result of bad weather, staffing and technology issues.
Southwest canceled greater than 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31 as crew scheduling software was unable to maintain up with quite a few flight changes within the wake severe winter weather.
The Senate Commerce Committee hearing may also include testimony from Casey Murray, president of the Southwest pilots’ labor union; Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice chairman of legislative and regulatory policy at Airlines for America, an industry group that represents the country’s largest airlines; Paul Hudson, president of consumer rights group Flyers’ Rights; and Clifford Winston, a senior fellow on the Brookings Institution.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the committee chair, had previously said she planned to carry a hearing on flight disruptions after Southwest’s holiday travel chaos.
