Southwest Operational Performance Still Lags Other Major U.S. Carriers as it Recovers from Holiday Meltdown
After a week of significant cancellations and delays for
Southwest Airlines—in which it reduced its flights to one-third of its normal
schedule, CEO Bob Jordan issued an apology, and the U.S. Department of
Transportation said it would investigate the airline’s practices—the carrier on
Dec. 30 had returned to normal operations with usual disruptions for a
holiday weekend.
Southwest on Friday canceled 43 flights, according to
flight tracker FlightAware, compared to more than 2,000 flights on Thursday. By
Monday, however, that number had crept back up to 205, representing 4 percent
of the carrier’s total flights. For comparison, among major U.S.