Southwest Airlines Returns to Normalcy After Deluge of Holiday, Weather Challenges
In this Feb. 9, 2012, a Southwest Airlines Boeing lands at Chicago’s Midway Airport as another sits at a gate. Southwest Airlines Co. said Thursday, March 1, 2012, that it took a step toward combining its fleet with that of AirTran Airways as U.S. officials gave the airlines a single operating certificate
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Southwest Airlines announced it is resuming normal operations on Friday following a Christmas holiday debacle that saw the airline cancel at least 16,000 flights amid a winter storm. Customers traveling in the days leading up to Christmas were left seething after they were stranded by a wave of flight cancellations following a nationwide massive winter storm that upended holiday travel. Travel experts said Southwest had canceled about 66% of flights daily since last Monday. In comparison, other airlines were canceling about 2% of its flights because of bad weather. “Southwest Airlines is operating our normal schedule on Friday, Dec. 30. We appreciate the dedicated work of the Southwest Team to restore our schedule, and we anticipate minimal disruptions for the weekend,” the release said. “Once again, we value the continued patience and support of our valued Customers, and we apologize for the inconveniences of the past week.” The airline praised its employees for helping to restore the schedule. “We look forward to the opportunity to address any needs of our customers over the coming days as we strive to return to our previous level of Southwest hospitality and reliability,” it said. 
AmericasVideo: Thousands Stranded Across US Amid Bevy of Cancellations From Southwest Airlines27 December, 22:06 GMTSouthwest’s CEO Bob Jordan acknowledged several factors that caused the company’s problems during an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “This is something that we have really never seen in our 51 years,” Jordan said of the storm. “There’ll be lessons learned from this and we’ll continue to make more investments.”That included the task of moving crews from place-to-place, the length and breadth of the storm, record cold temperatures that froze airplanes and runways and record-cold temperatures which overwhelmed Southwest’s regular operations and tools, Jordan said. Employees, union members and aviation observers also point to a lack of investment in Southwest’s technology which meant an outdated system unable to link crews to flights and its point-to-point operational structure which was disrupted and upended schedules.