Southwest Cancels Another 4,800 Flights
NPR reports Southwest Cancels Another 4,800 Flights as its Reduced Schedule Continues.
After canceling roughly 13,000 flights in the last few days, the airline is planning to remain on a reduced flying schedule for a few more days, its CEO said in a statement late Tuesday.
All domestic airlines have returned to pre-storm delay and cancellation levels after being knocked off-kilter late last week by a severe winter storm. Yet Southwest Airlines, plagued by staffing shortages and an outdated scheduling system, is still paralyzed.
Understanding the Meltdown
The Wall Street Journal explains How Southwest Airlines Melted Down.
When Southwest Airlines Co. reassigns crews after flight disruptions, it typically relies on a system called SkySolver. This Christmas, SkySolver not only didn’t solve much, it also helped create the worst industry meltdown in recent memory.
SkySolver was overwhelmed by the scale of the task of sorting out which pilots and flight attendants could work which flights, Southwest executives said. Crew schedulers instead had to comb through records by hand.
Some shared screenshots on social media that showed hold times of eight hours or more—which meant they could wait a full workday for instructions while flights were stuck for the lack of a crew. The airline was scrambling just to figure out where its crew members were located, union leaders said.
It canceled more than 13,000 flights since Thursday, stranded passengers and bags across the country, snarled Southwest’s crew members and drew fire from federal officials.
Southwest’s pilots union for years complained that SkySolver often spits out fixes that don’t make much sense, sending crews on circuitous journeys around the country as passengers to meet flights, a practice known as “deadheading.”
By Monday, Southwest executives realized they needed a full reboot. In an effort to get pilots, flight attendants and planes into position, the airline took more draconian measures. It canceled close to two-thirds of its planned flights for multiple days, and locked up seat inventory on its website so customers couldn’t buy tickets for a flight that might ultimately be canceled.
Unlike many rival airlines, Southwest’s planes generally hop from one city to another, rather than orbiting a major hub. That approach lets Southwest maximize use of its planes and crew, but the daisy chain structure also makes its network more delicate—problems in one corner of the country can be difficult to contain, said Samuel Engel, senior vice president of aviation at consulting firm ICF International Inc.
From a Southwest Pilot
Unclaimed Baggage
Pete to the Rescue
Airline’s Fault
Climate Change to Blame?
You knew that would eventually come up, didn’t you?
More Idiocy
Where’s Elizabeth Warren?
I Found Her
The Problem
Obviously, SkySolver is a total disaster. Perhaps Southwest’s no hub model is a problem as well.
Then again, perhaps not having a hub is a feature except during extreme times. This storm was extreme.
It’s a cliché, but call it the perfect storm if you like.
What’s the Solution?
The solution is not more airlines. The solution is not more regulation. The solution has nothing to do with blocking mergers.
The solution, believe it or not, is for government to do nothing at all.
Congress should stay out of it. So should Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. And so should President Biden.
Amazing, Paul Krugman gets this correct in a seven-point Tweet Thread.
Paul Krugman on Southwest
- I’m doing some homework on the Southwest disaster — probably more tomorrow. And I hate to say this, but it doesn’t look like a simple morality play about greedy capitalists 1/
- A lot of the issue was apparently that SW does point-to-point, not hub and spoke. This left planes and especially crews stranded far more than other airlines 2/
- But p2p has advantages in normal conditions. In fact, other airlines have to some extent been moving back to the direct flight system over time 3/
- Worth noting that before this happened, SW was ranked #1 in customer satisfaction (in basic economy — it doesn’t have business class) 4/
- Now clearly SW had an inadequate scheduling system; there may be a story of corporate penny-pinching here. But hardly unique 5/
- Mainly, though, a system that normally works pretty well ran into a, um, perfect storm. No doubt some bad actors; there must be some way to blame Musk or someone. But not a morality play 6/
- Btw, clear family resemblance to the shipping container crisis of 2021-2. But more to come 7/
Free Market Dynamics
If consumers get mad enough they will stop using Southwest. Meanwhile, Southwest will surely upgrade SkySolver.
Perhaps Southwest rethinks its no hub model.
Regardless, consumers will now be aware of the possibilities of such a disaster and will either be willing to gamble on them or switch.
The solution then, is do nothing. By that I mean no legislative response from Congress. Southwest will upgrade its system or it will lose customers.
And Southwest customers will now be aware of issues with its no hub model that usually works better except when it spectacularly doesn’t.
That said, Krugman gave himself away.
“And I hate to say this, but it doesn’t look like a simple morality play about greedy capitalists.“
What a hoot. Krugman wanted to make a moral statement and blame greedy capitalists but couldn’t.
This post originated on MishTalk.Com.
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Mish
US airlines are the worst in the world. Few Americans leave the US so they have no idea how much better foreign airlines (especially Asian airlines) are than US airlines. The solution is to open US airspace and allow foreign carriers to compete with US carriers on domestic routes. Yes, all US airlines will go bankrupt. Good riddance!
“The solution then, is do nothing. By that I mean no legislative response from Congress. Southwest will upgrade its system or it will lose customers.”
“The solution then, is do nothing. By that I mean no legislative response from Congress. Southwest will upgrade its system or it will lose customers.”