John and Lori Ingoldsby, who drove to Denver after the primary leg in their flight on Southwest Airways used to be canceled, look forward to a flight to complete their shuttle at Denver World Airport on December 28, 2022 in Denver, Colorado.
Michael Ciaglo | Getty Photographs
Southwest Airways’ leader working officer, Andrew Watterson, will face questions from a Senate panel subsequent Thursday concerning the provider’s vacation meltdown that stranded loads of hundreds of vacationers.
Southwest stated the listening to date overlapped with “a prior dedication” for CEO Bob Jordan.
Jordan, who has been CEO for a yr, has vowed to win again vacationers’ believe after the debacle, which resulted in an $800 million pretax hit ultimate quarter and driven it right into a loss.
Watterson plans to “use the chance to give an explanation for how we’ve got taken movements to make issues proper for our Shoppers since Southwest’s overdue December disruption, in addition to what we are doing to mitigate the danger of it taking place once more,” the airline stated in a commentary.
The incident has drawn greater scrutiny from Washington and capped a yr of on-and-off disruptions in air commute, because of dangerous climate, staffing and generation problems.
Southwest canceled greater than 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31 as workforce scheduling tool used to be not able to stay alongside of a lot of flight adjustments within the wake critical iciness climate.
The Senate Trade Committee listening to can even come with testimony from Casey Murray, president of the Southwest pilots’ hard work union; Sharon Pinkerton, senior vp of legislative and regulatory coverage at Airways for The us, an trade team that represents the rustic’s biggest airways; Paul Hudson, president of client rights team Flyers’ Rights; and Clifford Winston, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the committee chair, had in the past stated she deliberate to carry a listening to on flight disruptions after Southwest’s vacation commute chaos.