Southwest Airlines cancels more flights but promises a return to normal

Judy Woodruff:

The toll of the blizzard that hit the U.S. at Christmas in lives lost is still rising tonight. Officials now report at least 40 deaths in and around Buffalo, New York.

But, as the frigid weather eases, recovery efforts are slowly making headway.

Stephanie Sy begins our coverage.

Stephanie Sy:

Buffalo is thawing out after days of being snowed in. The city lifted a driving ban just after midnight, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul visited the area today and said roads are still a long way from normal.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY):

The vehicles long the size of the roads are shocking. It's not just small vehicles. It is literally snowplows. It is major-sized recovery vehicles and utility vehicles and tow trucks. So we have a real challenge right now, where we have roads blocked. Roads are literally blocked by emergency vehicles.

Stephanie Sy:

Meanwhile, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz apologized a day after criticizing the city of Buffalo's emergency response.

Mark Poloncarz, Erie County, New York, Executive:

We can always be critical of others. And I was critical. And I need to be critical on myself for what I did yesterday. It was just wrong. It was inappropriate.

Stephanie Sy:

There were also questions about alleged disparities between clearing streets in lower-income and Black and brown areas vs. wealthier white communities.

Just over half of those who died in the city were people of color.

Mark Poloncarz:

Of the decedents, 18 were white, 20 were Black, and one was Hispanic.

Stephanie Sy:

The city may also have to contend with flooding, as temperatures reach 50 degrees tomorrow and all that snow melts.

In the meantime, the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport has reopened, but flight cancellations persist nationwide, nearly all of them by Southwest Airlines. The carrier again scrapped about 60 percent of its flights today. Southwest has acknowledged that outdated I.T. systems stranded its pilots and flight attendants.

Bags are piling up at airports without their owners there to claim them, while others are getting lost en route to their destinations.

Maria Ferrell finally made it back home to Dallas, but she's still waiting for her bags.

Maria Ferrell, Southwest Passenger:

I was told my luggage would arrive on the next available flight that has been send, but, so far, no luggage.

Stephanie Sy:

In a statement, Ryan Green, Southwest's chief commercial officer, offered his apologies.

Ryan Green, Chief Commercial Officer, Southwest Airlines:

After many plans changed and experiences felt short of your expectations of us, we're continuing to work to make this up to you.

Stephanie Sy:

Southwest says it plans to return to normal operations tomorrow.

Southwest has now created a Web site for travelers who remain stuck and for reimbursement requests, but thousands remain unable to reach the airline for assistance.

For more, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal reporter Alison Sider. She's been following the developments closely and joins us from Chicago.

Alison Sider, thanks so much for being with us.

So what's the latest you're hearing? Does it look like Southwest will be able to get operations back to normal by tomorrow?

Alison Sider, The Wall Street Journal:

That's what they're saying.

They're saying they spent this week with a smaller schedule intensely focused on getting all of their people, all their planes ready, where they need to be. And they say they're prepared to do that. They have canceled only about 39 flights for tomorrow, and they say the rest should operate as planned.

Stephanie Sy:

And I understand we're talking upwards of a million travelers that have been affected. They now say they're going to reimburse travelers' expenses.

I wonder, how much confidence should consumers have that they really will be compensated for the amount commensurate with the misery and expense that's been caused in the last week?

Alison Sider:

Well, I mean, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny and a lot of focus on them as they do this. So, Southwest has said it's committed to reimbursing people for the expenses that they incurred.

And I think a lot of people are paying attention to whether they live up to those commitments. So I think, in that sense, consumers — that could be helpful for consumers.

Stephanie Sy:

Yes.

And I know that the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, just today sent another letter to the CEO of Southwest. In this case, he said the department will use the fullest extent of its investigative and enforcement powers to hold Southwest accountable if it fails to reimburse passengers.

My question is, what enforcement powers do they have to ensure that consumers are reimbursed?

Alison Sider:

Right.

So, airlines have — at the department's urging, a lot of airlines have put these promises into their customer service plans, what they will do for people if there was a delay or cancellation that was within the airline's control. That includes putting them up in hotels or reimbursing them for meals.

And the department has said it believes it can take action against airlines that fail to live up to those promises and those customer service plans. So I expect that is something that they would definitely pursue, and that's what the secretary has indicated.

Stephanie Sy:

The executives of Southwest, as you know, have acknowledged to some degree, actually pretty directly, that their systems were overmatched. That was the word used by the chief operating officer. They could not match the scale of the storm.

My question is, how does that happen with one of the nation's largest air carriers? How are they not ready for a major storm?

Alison Sider:

Yes.

Well, and what the company has said is that they have tools, software systems that they felt had served them pretty well even in previous disruptions that are kind of normal size, like a hurricane or even a snowstorm, and that this storm was just so severe, and the disruption it caused was so significant, that the system it uses really to match pilots and flight attendants with planes during irregular events like this, that it just couldn't keep up with the sheer number of changes.

I mean, that said, the company has been aware for a long time that this is something that needed work and had said it had made some improvements even over the last year. But this — it didn't come quickly enough, the major overhaul.

Stephanie Sy:

So, yes, there was the problem with the crews not being matched by the computer system, by the software they use, which I know you write about.

You also have a great description for another difference between Southwest and other airlines, which is that Southwest planes generally hop from one city to another, rather than orbiting a major hub. Those are your descriptors.

How much of that model is to blame? And is that something the company can solve anytime soon?

Alison Sider:

Yes, Southwest's point-to-point network is something that's a huge part of its business model, and really kind of the key to its growth and how it's expanded to so many different communities and markets around the country.

And it's something that they're really proud of. But, that said, it's also potentially something that has made it a little harder for them to recover when things go wrong. Because they don't have these huge hubs where lots of spare planes are — and spare staff are all concentrated in waiting, and it makes it a little bit harder potentially for them to kind of isolate or contain a problem to one area of the country.

Because their planes are really hopscotching from one city to the next, there can be a ripple effect.

Stephanie Sy:

Yes, it makes you wonder whether they will have to rethink that business model.

I know the shares are down. How big of a hit to the business is forecast at this point? Are they — are they expecting that customers will be scared away?

Alison Sider:

No, I think they are — they're sort of a little unsure what's going to happen with bookings going forward.

Analysts have had a range of estimates how big of an impact this could be. Certainly, to the fourth quarter, they will see it, and maybe even to early next year. But they haven't — Southwest hasn't yet put a number on how much this will ultimately cost them.

They had another disruption, much smaller scale relative to this, a little over a year ago, fall of 2021, and that cost them about $75 million. So, we're talking an order of magnitude bigger than that.

Stephanie Sy:

Alison Sider of The Wall Street Journal, thank you.

Alison Sider:

Thanks so much for having me.