As just about everyone in the world knows by now, Southwest Airlines had an unprecedented meltdown a bit over a month ago, over the holidays. Tens of thousands of flights were canceled, over a million travelers were stranded, and this will end up costing the airline over $800 million.
What I find bizarre is how Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan is continuing to frame this incident. Let me be clear — personally I don’t think he’s directly to blame, or that he should resign because of this incident. He was at the job for less than a year, and this ultimately unfolded because Southwest Airlines underinvested in technology for a long time (perhaps because the airline was previously run by accountants).
Yet the way Jordan continues to communicate what happened leaves me puzzled. His interview with Axios is the latest example of that, though we’ve seen him parrot a similar narrative with all kinds of other outlets.
In this post:
Jordan denies the meltdown was a technology issue
Southwest Airlines’ CEO seems unwilling to admit that this meltdown happened due to technology, and he even calls that a misconception:
“I think the biggest misconception right away was that it was a technology issue. We tried to be really clear that while the technology got overwhelmed, it is not what caused this. It was a weather event that turned into a crew and aircraft routing network event, that then pushed the technology to a point that it couldn’t help us because it was having to solve [operational] problems that were already in the past — but it wasn’t a technology event.”
So it wasn’t a technology event… it was a weather event that became a crew and aircraft routing event, and that pushed the technology to the point that it no longer functioned how it needed to. Um… I think that’s what we ultimately call a technology event?
Of course there was weather, but ultimately what caused such a disastrous meltdown was the crew scheduling software’s inability to reschedule crews. Other major airlines have different crew scheduling software that did handle this situation much better.
Jordan insists the airline spends a lot of money on technology. I mean, let me just remind you that until 2017, Southwest wasn’t even capable of operating redeye flights or adjusting flight schedules day-to-day due to the technology it had. Sure, the airline has tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, so obviously it spends “a lot” on technology. But I think it still falls within the “probably not enough” range.
Jordan wonders if communication could have been better
One of the worst aspects of Southwest’s meltdown was the complete lack of communication, especially early on. Part of what made this meltdown so horrible is that it was over the holidays, so travelers were stranded at airports over Christmas, with little guidance as to what they should do. Now Southwest Airlines’ CEO is wondering if the airline communicated well enough during the meltdown:
“You always wonder whether you communicated fast enough. We were very quick to communicate internally every single day, but I think ‘did we communicate externally, quickly enough?’ would be the ultimate question.”
Is he serious? It was days into the meltdown before we publicly heard a peep from Jordan, let alone anyone senior at Southwest Airlines. Southwest issued its first press release even acknowledging the issues on the evening of December 26, and Jordan didn’t release any sort of direct message until the evening of December 27.
Heck, on the afternoon of December 26 (days into the meltdown), the Southwest station director for Houston Hobby Airport sort of became the unofficial spokesperson for the airline, and held the first briefing we saw from the airline about what was going on.
He blamed Southwest’s meltdown on weather and flight crews not being where they needed to be. Which, I mean, that’s correct, but we all know the reason crews weren’t where they needed to be, which is the failure of Southwest’s crew scheduling technology (but let’s not call this a technology issue!).
It just seems tone deaf to a month later be wondering whether the communication could have been better. I mean, the airline was in full-on meltdown mode before Christmas, and there was nothing publicly from Jordan until the evening of December 27.
Bottom line
Southwest had a terrible meltdown over the holidays. I trust the airline will now make the investments it needs in order to avoid this ever happening again.
However, the communication from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan is anything but reassuring. Ironically he’s now arguing that “you’ve got to be transparent and not defensive, that builds trust.” And at the same time he’s claiming that this wasn’t a technology issue, and that he wonders if the airline could have communicated differently.
Am I the only one puzzled by this approach? He has been doing a media blitz and has consistently been saying the same thing, and I can’t help but feel like it just lacks humility. I’d feel much more reassured if he said “we screwed up big time in so many ways, and this is a big lesson for us.” But rather he seems to be justifying everything that happened in a way that doesn’t seem to reflect reality.
If the airline doesn’t want to take accountability more concretely for legal reasons then that’s fine, but then maybe don’t do a bunch of media where you claim that it’s so important to be transparent?
Can anyone make senses of the communication strategy of Southwest’s CEO here?
Completely agree. Tech issues and management issues. I hate Southwest. Every time I fly there’s an issue. Preboarding process is an absolute joke. Bottom line is: they suck. I agree completely with this article.
As a former flight attendant from 90-97, I can tell you for certain technology is and was the problem way back then. Everything was run by pen and paper. That gap in technology was and is still widely known. Absolutely, nothing changed from the '90s until today. I don't blame Jordan either, but it's now on his plate, and he takes the blame moving forward.
He has to say it wasn’t technology. The shareholders who got rich off of SWA are suing SWA. They claim they didn’t know money wasnt being put toward technology…… really?!?
Bravo
"It's not a technology issue..." so he doesn't have to spend money on technology.
I've dealt with software that could handle 500k clients all calling in within the same hour. It isn't THAT hard. A mix of laptops and various different phones. The site has to have enough bandwidth to cope, and the DB has to be well designed, and you need a client for each type of device.
The devices could report their location every time the person carrying them switches to on call or on duty,...
I've dealt with software that could handle 500k clients all calling in within the same hour. It isn't THAT hard. A mix of laptops and various different phones. The site has to have enough bandwidth to cope, and the DB has to be well designed, and you need a client for each type of device.
The devices could report their location every time the person carrying them switches to on call or on duty, or turns off airplane mode. This would give the city they are located in. Maintenance or the captain would need to set a plane as unavailable if there is a maintenance issue and back when it is fixed. The res should be automatable on a small collection of servers that wouldn't break the bank.
I'm guessing that the servers and software are both decades old.
If it's framed as a "weather" issue then the airline is not responsible for paying hundreds of dollars per delayed flight. If it's a technology issue, they legally must. Air Canada regularly does this where even though there was another issue, they blame 'weather' to get around compensating passengers.
Meltdown happened because the airline was run by accountants? Cut the crap with accountants, please.
It doesn't make you look smart, at all.
Wow! That was your interpretation of the accountant comment? LOL!
Reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
The comment was clearly about accountants preventing the company, over years, from keeping up with current technology. Which happens at many companies where short term profit motive overrides long term everything else.
It's probably because they want to draw against insurance.
Ben;
And not a comment about the January 11th FAA System outage when Mayor Pete said that he was going to direct an After Action process to determine the root causes and make a recommendation as to the next steps. Over 9,000 flights were canceled, delayed or rescheduled.
So Southwest's issues were not technology related, but the FAA's and Mayor Buttigieg was; but not weather.
One of the worst aspects of Buttigieg's/FAA's...
Ben;
And not a comment about the January 11th FAA System outage when Mayor Pete said that he was going to direct an After Action process to determine the root causes and make a recommendation as to the next steps. Over 9,000 flights were canceled, delayed or rescheduled.
So Southwest's issues were not technology related, but the FAA's and Mayor Buttigieg was; but not weather.
One of the worst aspects of Buttigieg's/FAA's meltdown was the complete lack of communication, especially early on.
Is he serious? It was hours into the meltdown before we publicly heard a peep from Buttigieg, let alone anyone senior at the FAA.
I’d feel much more reassured if Buttigieg said “we screwed up big time in so many ways, and this is a big lesson for us.”
Thanks Ben for allowing me to plagiarize your post, but turn it around on the FAA and the Transportation Secretary for a very similar incident.
Too many parallels and similarities to not mention the public side (government) of things along with the privately run entities.
The writing is on the wall for Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, he (along with his senior management team) doesn't even know what (or how) to communicate six weeks after an operational debacle for the ages.
3 or 4 other major airlines dealt with "the weather". Gimme a break!
Don't forget that good old Bob pocketed nearly 2 million in stock option awards on 2/1/2023. Perfect way to say screw you to all those customers stranded during the holiday. Bob and Gary need to go.
Does Southwest not have a PR Firm? This is so very very dumb
Unfortunately, many many in charge of operations in the upper ranks don't have a technology background and generally refuse to learn it as it will expose their weaknesses. Many project managers are PMs because they have no tech skills. They then rise in rank and become upper mgmt. This incident have everything to do with technology. The weather event may have been the catalyst but the tech is suppose to help mitigate. While their current...
Unfortunately, many many in charge of operations in the upper ranks don't have a technology background and generally refuse to learn it as it will expose their weaknesses. Many project managers are PMs because they have no tech skills. They then rise in rank and become upper mgmt. This incident have everything to do with technology. The weather event may have been the catalyst but the tech is suppose to help mitigate. While their current mode of operation might have been fine in 1987 we all can see how bad it is in 2022 especially since all other airlines recovered well in advance of SW. CEOs need competent CTOs and at least 50% of their execs can't be old farts who thinks excel is acceptable tech processing or the right thing to spend money on is the IT product du jour.
I used to always fly with Southwest, but the last time was four years ago. Then I switched to Alaska Airlines, as I live in Washington State where they've based, and they have a lot more flights and destinations than Southwest. But after this "meltdown," I will never even CONSIDER flying with Southwest again!
How do you edit? I noticed a typo after posting. Should be where "they're" NOT "they've" based....
I also switched from Southwest to Alaska for the many inter-California flights I take each year. Its just so much easier to fly with them.
Yes...and I really like choosing my seat ahead of time now...vs. trying to find one after boarding a Southwest flight.... And seatback power, too! Southwest is starting to add that, but they're still "running behind" Alaska and Delta, etc....
If you repeat something enough, people believe you. Example… the mrna vaccine is safe and effective.
Let me guess - you also think the 2020 election was “stolen”?
GTFOH.
You can’t put brains in a monument, @UA-NYC - let the morons keep talking - just like five year-olds, they wear themselves out eventually…
Thank you for writing this article! I have been puzzled by his response as well. He knows it was a technology issue obviously but he probably was told by the board of directors to not completely blaim this on technology because it would make his predecessor look bad which happens to be the chairman of the board (Gary Kelly). This company reminds me of what happened to Boeing, greedy execs at the top squeezing every...
Thank you for writing this article! I have been puzzled by his response as well. He knows it was a technology issue obviously but he probably was told by the board of directors to not completely blaim this on technology because it would make his predecessor look bad which happens to be the chairman of the board (Gary Kelly). This company reminds me of what happened to Boeing, greedy execs at the top squeezing every penny they can for the sake of shareholders and executive bonuses from what used to be one of the most respected companys in the world. Good luck Southwest you'll need it with this leadership in charge.
Ben the bootlicker, ignoring the biggest culprits in this fiasco weren’t private companies but private companies in bed with federal, state and even local governments.
Go ahead and google: Southwest's Meltdown Reminds Us We Must End Airlines' Corporate Welfare
We need fresh competition in the skies, and it’s not going to get better until folks start calling out government ineptitude that prevents competition.
You ultimately get what you pay for!
If the quotes in this post are accurate, the guy truly sounds stupid. Wonder how he got to be a CEO of anything?
The CEO will have a PR firm advising him to repeat the lie often enough so people will believe it
Just as interesting, there’s a senate hearing next week but only the Southwest COO will be there since the CEO has a prior commitment.
What kind of prior commitment takes precedent over a senate hearing?
Exactly. The SWA CEO truly proves himself by way of consistent conduct involving his position. Right there alongside GK. Prove us wrong.
I also work in tech - and have to admit I do not know as much as I would like to about airline operations. But from pure observation, it looks to me WN is ran operationally different from other airlines.
- which other airline has a concept of cross-country milk runs with 4-5 stops?
- which other airlines schedules turning the plane around in 30 mins?
- while WN does have some...
I also work in tech - and have to admit I do not know as much as I would like to about airline operations. But from pure observation, it looks to me WN is ran operationally different from other airlines.
- which other airline has a concept of cross-country milk runs with 4-5 stops?
- which other airlines schedules turning the plane around in 30 mins?
- while WN does have some sort of focus cities, it is a lot less hub-and-spoke operations.
These things (miraculously IMO) work amazingly well when everything is normal - but when things break - they break bad.
so if you have a flight (something like) SEA-SJC-RNO-LAS-MSP and you got IROPS in SJC - I am not sure what technology can do to get the extra plane and crew in RNO to reduce impact on those traveling from there on
Current leadership has willfully & intentionally destroyed Herb’s legacy carrier. Their disingenuous conduct to the employees, customers, & shareholders is so apparent. Yet, the fools who have bought into this charade are of signal concern.
I work in technology. Whenever there is a problem we conduct a full Root Cause Analysis (RCA). It sounds like WN's RCA determined that weather was the cause of the problem, and it was the cause of planes and crews being it of position. However, they should have rather been searching for the reason they couldn't recover from the weather event, that RCA would have pinpointed the problem and thus also be communicated out to...
I work in technology. Whenever there is a problem we conduct a full Root Cause Analysis (RCA). It sounds like WN's RCA determined that weather was the cause of the problem, and it was the cause of planes and crews being it of position. However, they should have rather been searching for the reason they couldn't recover from the weather event, that RCA would have pinpointed the problem and thus also be communicated out to the world. The CEO's responses show that they're analyzing the situation based on the wrong criteria which could lead to the wrong corrective action being taken.
Your root cause analysis is wrong.
The CEO is the root cause.
I flew United on Christmas morning and got to my destination with no issues at all. People were stunned, as I was coming from Texas. They were asking how I managed to do that? I said, "I got on the plane. I sat down. The plane flew for three hours. And I got off."
United had zero issues with getting people where they needed to be.
After Herb Kelleher passed away, WN started treating it's front line employees like caca and it's been a slow downward spiral ever since. True leadership starts at the very top.
When I pulled up to the airport on the first day of the meltdown and saw HUGE lines in 3 different directions to even get into the airport, I thought, "oh here we go". But I was flying Alaska. The lines were all for SWA. Ticket counter, to TSA, to gate took less than 15 minutes. Flight was on-time, landing early. I was/am sorry to the thousands upon thousands who were shafted by SWA, but there is a reason I have never, and will never fly them.
Does he really believe the public is so stupid to believe this myth that the weather caused the problem? Why was it only WN then? He needs to shut up and fix the problem.
I’ve argued with friends and colleagues for years that are WN loyalists about how antiquated and conservative an airline they are. Poor and rigid software, the cattle call boarding process that even Ryanair abandoned, no extra legroom seats other than exit rows, no food for sale on long routes (a real problem if you have a delay on a connection and need to rush between flights), still no redeye flights, and perhaps most importantly no...
I’ve argued with friends and colleagues for years that are WN loyalists about how antiquated and conservative an airline they are. Poor and rigid software, the cattle call boarding process that even Ryanair abandoned, no extra legroom seats other than exit rows, no food for sale on long routes (a real problem if you have a delay on a connection and need to rush between flights), still no redeye flights, and perhaps most importantly no interline agreements for when things go wrong. When I still lived in DEN their “all-inclusive” fares were often more expensive than the big 3 or F9 even when you added bags, seats etc.
The WN kool aid drinking reminds me a lot of QAnon.
Companion pass is the only reason we fly SWA. They are rarely price beaters and without a BOGO ticket we'd do better on other airlines
You must be kidding on prices. WN is the lowest price (among actual airlines, not counting Frontier, Spirit, etc.) consistently, without even figuring in the baggage fees. I'm not a huge fan, but their pricing, especially recently, blows their competition away.
I mean, not really. Like I'm paying $200 RT for a UA flight from Denver to Chicago with bags, Southwest fare is $360 RT when I was searching flights at the time. Southwest isn't really cheaper, and that's the problem with it. Even going to ABQ a much closer city to Denver will still set you back $300 RT easy. I mean if SWA wants to put their money where their mouth is, most SWA flights shouldn't cost more than $100-150 at most. But that's rarely the case nowadays.
Really...? Nobody has it correct yet - it's a Leadership issue... First and foremost, Leadership failed miserably, from the Front Office, Engineering, Finance, Information Technology, Material, Baggage Handling,Ticket Sales to finally the Board of Directors.....
My flight from colorado springs was delayed 5 days. Turned in invoices for calls i had to send to another company for repairing my customers water wells. They refuse to pay lost wages, yet they pay morons bonuses for causing these problems? What a joke!!! I'm DONE with southwest. And that's NO JOKE!!!
All jordan needs is desantis' and republicans' approach to whitewash the meltdown and in no time he can claim that it never happened.
And every maga imbecile will believe.
As for investing more, don't count on it. What are the odds of another event of this magnitude happening during his tenure? No need to impact his bonus.
This happened on the Democrat Biden Administration Watch..
Hahahaha…your the reason no one takes you people serious.
Recognizing that it's not a question of technology is actually good. Because if they took from this that "we 'fix' the technology problem and we're good", all that would happen is that they'd continue growing the complexity of the route network without changing anything else and this will happen again.
Because the actual root cause is a company culture that values efficiency in the average/most-of-the-time case. "Southwest being Southwest". Point-to-point flying with one aircraft type...
Recognizing that it's not a question of technology is actually good. Because if they took from this that "we 'fix' the technology problem and we're good", all that would happen is that they'd continue growing the complexity of the route network without changing anything else and this will happen again.
Because the actual root cause is a company culture that values efficiency in the average/most-of-the-time case. "Southwest being Southwest". Point-to-point flying with one aircraft type and fast turnarounds to reduce gate requirements (as well as free checked bags to encourage not flying with a large carry-on and thus speed up boarding by not having to look for an overhead) is part of that, but trying to globally optimize crew scheduling so that you need as few employees as possible is also part of that. The effect of that is that every flight added to the schedule and every new airport served super-linearly increases the time to make a schedule. There's some operational slack that hasn't been eliminated for efficiency (beyond a certain point in any complex system, improving efficiency implies decreasing resiliency (and you generally don't know until you need the resiliency that you're past that point): this is a general lesson that the great financial crisis of the late 2000s and the COVID supply chain crunches drive home if you give it any thought), and when there's enough disruption to consume that slack, you need to make a new schedule. In Southwest's case, that takes a couple of days and in all likelihood, no software is going to improve on that.
The improvement comes from simplifying the problem the software has to solve. The US airlines that are in some sense similarly-sized to Southwest (AA, DL, UA) accomplish this by having regional airlines operate flights (an Endeavor crew can't work a SkyWest flight for Delta Connection, for instance), and by having aircraft subfleets (a 787 crew probably can't fly an A319 for AA). From a scheduling standpoint, AA/DL/UA are each several different airlines that coordinate well enough in the areas that are visible to passengers that they seem like one airline, but each of those individual airlines has its own slack and there's some amount of bulkheading: a SkyWest meltdown in SLC is unlikely to have much of an effect on Delta TATL ops.
For any airline, there's a threshold for cancellations beyond which the schedule needs to be blown up in order to recover operations ("rebooting the airline") and the airline will largely stop flying until a new schedule can be built. Southwest's Southwest-ness led them to build a system where that threshold steadily decreased and the time to reboot got steadily longer.
There's a reason they basically withdrew profit guidance. They can't promise that there won't be a meltdown at least the size of the Christmas meltdown in the next 6-9 months unless they change the way they operate (e.g. partition into an east-of-the Mississippi airline and a west of the Mississippi airline: if a crew crosses the line, they immediately come back onside... just a 2-way partition basically cuts the time to recover by a factor of 3 or 4, but it will make operations more expensive every day). Whether they're actually willing to change (this is a company with an insular corporate culture), that might be another question, but the first step to recovery is being honest with oneself that one has a problem.
As an aside: if we're calling things meltdowns, there's a difference between Three Mile Island, Fukushima Daiichi, and Chernobyl.
good, extensive post, Levi.
Just to note that WN can say that their linear route system is a factor in their meltdown but they have often overflown a spoke city that is having weather problems to go to the next station. It is a lot harder to do that when the problem is in a hub - whether WN says they operate them or not but DEN is a hub no different than other...
good, extensive post, Levi.
Just to note that WN can say that their linear route system is a factor in their meltdown but they have often overflown a spoke city that is having weather problems to go to the next station. It is a lot harder to do that when the problem is in a hub - whether WN says they operate them or not but DEN is a hub no different than other legacy carrier hubs.
Not all legacy carriers operate out and back crew or aircraft rotations from hubs either; DL esp. rotates aircraft and crews at outstations which is essentially what WN does with its linear network while AA tries to keep aircraft and crew much more tied to specific hubs.
And I agree w/ you that the word "meltdown" has been thrown around way too much. Other airlines had and will have weather-related cancellations and even some non-weather cancellations but they all have done as well as or better than their peers in recovering as well as in the rate of cancellations across a larger period of time than just a couple days. When an airline's cancellation rate for an established period of time on which metrics are gathered - such as a month, quarter or year - are elevated then that airline has had a meltdown. picking out a day or even parts of a week and calling it a meltdown is hyperbole.
It's the American way. We never say the truth about what is going on. We always present things in the possible light. In fact, oftentimes in America you're punished for telling the truth, especially in corporate America. In all the years I worked and HR announced our copays for healthcare premiums went up, they never said it was because the company wanted to save money, they always said it was because "the new plan was better than ever".
DONE with southwest! Return from Colorado Springs was delayed 5 days. Turned in invoices that I had to send to another company for repairing my customers water wells. They refused,.saying they don't pay lost wages, but they pay bonuses to morons for causing these problems???? Again....DONE
This is the new age "CEO class." They are the professional CEO that knows very little about the business and is there to pump up the stock, do endless stock buy backs, make a fortune, and move on when things start going horribly wrong.
Southwest isn't my cup of tea but they served a purpose. Cheaper, less frills for the masses not interested in upgrades, lounges, FF programs and the like.
Unfortunately, other airline CEOs...
This is the new age "CEO class." They are the professional CEO that knows very little about the business and is there to pump up the stock, do endless stock buy backs, make a fortune, and move on when things start going horribly wrong.
Southwest isn't my cup of tea but they served a purpose. Cheaper, less frills for the masses not interested in upgrades, lounges, FF programs and the like.
Unfortunately, other airline CEOs aren't much better. US Domestic Airlines have become credit card mills that happen to prospect for applicants by flying them from Point A to Point B. Just look at what DL has done to it's lounges.
Hi George, I'm not a frequent flyer and do not follow airlines; so what did DL do to the lounges? Thank you.
Nothing more than public image rehabilitation / liability limitation / legislation pre-emption.
It won’t be successful, but he can’t be on record in pubic saying they f’d up repeatedly.
Your assessment is right, Ben.
Southwest lost operational control during a multi-city weather event for which it was not adequately prepared.
Even on their earnings call during which they explained why they lost money in the 4th quarter of 2022 and will in the 1st quarter of 2023, they acknowledged that they didn't have the equipment and processes to operate in cold weather (United put alot of its ground equipment inside overnight to...
Your assessment is right, Ben.
Southwest lost operational control during a multi-city weather event for which it was not adequately prepared.
Even on their earnings call during which they explained why they lost money in the 4th quarter of 2022 and will in the 1st quarter of 2023, they acknowledged that they didn't have the equipment and processes to operate in cold weather (United put alot of its ground equipment inside overnight to protect it from cold while WN reportedly did not).
WN has spent on technology but didn't have enough when it was most needed. They said GE's crew tracking solution "broke" because of WN's network and a lack of enhancements that GE itself later added but then acknowledged that one of the major factors was tracking where crews are/were - something other airlines automated years ago - even while acknowledging that they can't fully implement everything with crew tracking because their labor contracts don't require what they need to do.
Southwest has long been a marketing machine that flies airplanes. They care very deeply about their image - not the first airline or company that does - but continuing to try to spin what just happened keeps dragging out the incident in the eyes of the public.
WN should quit spinning, not try to defend themselves against SNL's skits and fix what created the problems that allowed the problems to take down WN, something that no other airline had happen this time - but has surely happened before.
Well, at least Tim Dunn will agree with you on this because it’s not Delta. In the end attacking WN is low hanging fruit that everyone seems to be grabbing at now. It’s so fashionable even SNL has joined the fun.
Not to give WN a free pass but more to the fact that they will take their barrage until one of the others becomes the next poster child of ineptness. And it will...
Well, at least Tim Dunn will agree with you on this because it’s not Delta. In the end attacking WN is low hanging fruit that everyone seems to be grabbing at now. It’s so fashionable even SNL has joined the fun.
Not to give WN a free pass but more to the fact that they will take their barrage until one of the others becomes the next poster child of ineptness. And it will happen. Pass the baton.
Bloggers won’t make a difference. Only the Government finally regulating corrupt large corporations will.
Similar to the near collapse of the TX power grid a few winters ago. Their power grid is isolated from the rest of the US (to avoid Federal regulations) and was not up to unprecedented conditions. But it was the weather's fault when TX asked the same Federal government for disaster assistance.
FYI, Bob Jordan has served in many roles at Southwest- he started out being in charge of Technology, and later on Communications. Some of the meltdown might be his legacy.
Your sight keeps shutting down repeatedly. Just to let you know.
It's a good thing their not selling airline tickets isn't it? Mutually exclusive!
Trying to deflect the most obvious issue, that WN technology couldn't handle the fallout from the weather, just makes these statements ridiculously tone-deaf. Acknowledge the problems that were self generated, technology, and vow to fix it.
Blaming the weather is like blaming gravity for the plane not flying.
His argument is weather precipitated a technology meltdown, so the precipitating event was technically weather, not inadequacies in the technology that allowed the meltdown. I’m not sure at this stage of the debacle why his corporate legal and comms departments thought that was a distinction worth making to the public.
If they can't even admit what the root cause was, how does anyone trust them to fix it?
We've just accepted the fact that you can't buy Southwest tickets more than 6 months in advance as a quirk, when it's obviously a software deficiency.
I think the situation in Nashville where the Southwest leadership hid and sent the police to remove passengers stranded at the gate is indicative of their lack of leadership and...
If they can't even admit what the root cause was, how does anyone trust them to fix it?
We've just accepted the fact that you can't buy Southwest tickets more than 6 months in advance as a quirk, when it's obviously a software deficiency.
I think the situation in Nashville where the Southwest leadership hid and sent the police to remove passengers stranded at the gate is indicative of their lack of leadership and communication capabilities.
I might still fly them for easy non stop trips during non peak holidays, but if they can't even admit their issues, why would anyone risk flying them during peak times and winter weather?
Maybe he blames the weather to avoid accountability. It's an Act of God. Ifbit's technology the airline is at fault...
The real question: Is he lying to the public or is he lying to himself? Both are bad but if he is lying to himself then he is incapable of correcting the problem for the future.
The real problem here is, "Accountants are NOT good at running the company". They have known about the scheduling issue for years. However they decided to reward the Board Members with a HUGE bonus instead of investing in the technology needed. Bob Jordan is a cast off of Gary Kelly and he has NEVER been up for this leadership position.
I think he’s trying to say the technology didn’t crash and it did function…it just has limited functionality and was never intended to deal with situations like that.
My 1998 PC running Windows 98 crashed and lost all my work, but it wasn’t a technology issue. It was caused by me typing in words and the technology not being able to store those words in memory, which led to the technology not keeping up. But the problem is definitely the typing, not the technology.
Yeah, that seems right.