Southwest Airlines’ operations chief faces questions at Senate hearing

One of Southwest Airlines’ top executives will be at the mercy of critical U.S. senators on Thursday to answer for the December holiday meltdown that made the carrier the focal point of pain for travelers.

The hearing will be broadcast at 9 a.m. CT at commerce.senate.gov following an executive session scheduled for committee business.

Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson is among those slated to testify in a U.S. Senate aviation subcommittee hearing about what happened to the Dallas-based carrier over the holiday season that led it to cancel 16,700 flights, stranding millions of passengers during the busy travel period.

Several senators on the committee, including chairperson Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, have already launched attacks at Southwest, demanding answers while others are using the airlines’ struggles as an opportunity to propose new consumer-friendly legislation that could add costs and hassle for carriers.

“It was clear that there was a system failure at Southwest and we want to understand why they haven’t upgraded this system,” Cantwell said at a town hall on the issue this week.

The hearing comes as the U.S. Department of Transportation investigates whether “unrealistic scheduling” led to the cancellations.

Also expected to be at the committee hearing is Southwest Airlines Pilot Association president Casey Murray, who’s been critical of Southwest’s technology systems before the December issues. Representatives from airline trade group Airlines for America, passenger rights organization Flyers’ Rights and an airline economist from the Brookings Institution are scheduled to talk as well.

Watterson, who took over as operations chief in the fall, is expected to apologize again for the December cancellations while assuring the committee that Southwest has a plan to prevent another meltdown, including upgrades to fix crew scheduling software shortcomings that led to cascading cancellation issues that spread across the country.

“Let me be clear: we messed up,” said a draft of prepared Senate testimony from Watterson viewed by The Dallas Morning News. “In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience.

“As we move forward, Southwest is focused on having the right people, equipment, processes, and technology in place to efficiently operate the network in all conditions when it is safe to fly,” Watterson plans to say.

Southwest, which has a history of technology shortcomings, has spent the last five weeks trying to soothe bitter customers who had holiday plans upended by the cancellation issues. The carrier initially blamed the problem on “overmatched” crew rescheduling software and processes but has since shifted blame to the freezing temperatures and ice that were part of a storm that hit key airports in Denver and Chicago where Southwest has crew bases.

The company has pledged refunds and reimbursements to customers for “reasonable” expenses and has sent $300 in credits to passengers whose travel was disrupted by the breakdown.

Watterson also said the company is testing an upgrade to the crew scheduling software from GE Digital that will prevent future problems such as those that caused issues over the holidays.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the ranking Republican on the committee. In a statement, his office said that Cruz will oppose efforts to add extra regulations to airlines.

“Now as much as Southwest messed up, the question of whether they’ve sufficiently made things right will be answered by the flying public,” Cruz said in his prepared remarks he plans to deliver Thursday. “I’m not sure all of my colleagues fully appreciate this fact or just how powerful the free market is.”

The meltdown already cost Southwest $800 million in lost revenue and reimbursements and the airline is expecting more lost bookings in the first quarter as fallout from the cancellations.

A group of 15 Democratic senators wrote a letter to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan last month demanding dozens of answers to specific questions about what happened in late December. The letter, which includes the signature of aviation committee members Raphael Warnock and Tammy Duckworth, also takes aim at Southwest’s plan to distribute $428 million in dividends this year and questions staffing, executive compensation and technology plans.

“For consumers across the country, this failure was more than a headache — it was a nightmare,” the Jan. 12 letter said. “Travelers were stranded across the country for days at a time, forced to spend hours on hold with Southwest customer service representatives or in line at Southwest service desks at the airport.”

Southwest’s issues prompted several Democratic senators to offer legislation bolstering federal oversight, more restrictions on airline fees and protections for passengers.