Last month’s Southwest Airlines disaster resulted in thousands of canceled flights. Stranded passengers and lost luggage.
The Department of Transportation is in the early stages of an investigation. Into the Southwest Airlines travel disaster and will look. Into whether executives overscheduled flights. A spokeswoman said.
Southwest canceled thousands of flights, cutting nearly two-thirds of its daily schedule. As it struggled to recover from days of wintry weather that even other airlines operated on.
The Department of Transportation is “investigating whether. Southwest executives engaged in unrealistic flight scheduling. That is considered an unfair. And deceptive practice under federal law,” the spokeswoman said. Southwest said in a statement Wednesday that it was prepared. But there was a massive winter storm. . It said it would continue to cooperate with all inquiries.
And offered to our customers with a solid planning support. And adequate staffing to manage it,” Southwest said. “Our systems and processes were strained. As we worked to recover from many days of flight cancellations. Across 50 airports in the wake of the unprecedented storm.” The Department of Transportation said it is confirming. That Southwest is providing refunds and reimbursements to passengers.
“DOT will use the full extent of its investigative. And this process will continue to evolve as the department learns more.” A department spokeswoman said Wednesday via email.
The cancellations that came after the Christmas holiday upset passengers. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called them unacceptable. And said his department would look at its scheduling system.
Southwest canceled an estimated 11,000 flights in the week after Christmas. And that pegged the cost of the fiasco at over $800 million.
Southwest called his performance unacceptable and apologized. CEO Bob Jordan said this month that the company has a budget to spend $1 billion. On “investing, upgrading and maintaining our IT systems.“
