Workers, Internal Memos Reveal Why Southwest Melted Down During Cold Snap

Airline pledges return to 'normal' schedule while facing 2 federal probes

A Southwest Airlines ground crew member organizes unclaimed luggage at the Southwest Airlines luggage area, at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 28, 2022. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Longtime employees of Southwest Airlines are saying: “We told you so.”

In the wake of a brutal pre-Christmas winter storm, Southwest’s competitors quickly rebounded. But as of Dec. 29, the Dallas-based airline was continuing to struggle mightily. The airline has been buried beneath the burden of thousands of canceled flights, mountains of misplaced luggage, and torrents of complaints from stranded passengers whose holiday plans were ruined.

Adding to the mess: Southwest’s systems have had difficulty locating flight personnel and pairing them with aircraft; airport photos posted online show Southwest planes lined up on the tarmac, sitting empty, while competitors take to the skies. The situation became so bad, two federal investigations were planned.

Although the airline said it hoped to return to “normal operations” on Dec. 30, one flight attendant said, “We don’t have any idea how this ‘fire’ is going to be contained ... It’s too big, and it’s gone too far.”

She was among five current Southwest employees who shared information with The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. The workers gave insights about the current crisis and outlined reasons they had foreseen a meltdown in the making years ago.

They expanded on union leaders’ public statements accusing management of ignoring pleas to fix issues that the bitterly cold weather painfully exposed.

Those include an outdated, easily overloaded computer system, a stressed-out workforce, and deterioration of the employee-centered culture. The company’s revered founder, the late Herb Kelleher, whose name is still invoked among the faithful, inspired smooth operations and stellar performance–both of which have been lacking lately, the employees say.

Airline Apologizes

Southwest did not answer The Epoch Times’ specific questions about the employees’ take on the company’s predicament.

Instead, the airline’s Dec. 29 email focused on the company’s efforts to assist customers.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan Southwest Airlines Website Photo

The company has “enhanced” some of its online tools on Southwest.com, providing passengers with self-service options to rebook flights, apply for refunds, and report lost luggage.

The airline said it was continuing to operate under a reduced schedule for Dec. 29; as of about 1 p.m. Eastern, FlightAware.com said Southwest had canceled 2,364 flights–58 percent of its total.

“We plan to return to normal operations with minimal disruptions on Friday, Dec. 30,” in time for the New Year’s Eve holiday, the airline said in an update posted to its website Dec. 29. “We are encouraged by the progress we’ve made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet. With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy.”

The airline continued: “We know even our deepest apologies—to our Customers, to our Employees, and to all affected through this disruption—only go so far.”

The airline acknowledged that it has a lot of work ahead of it, “including investing in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions.”

In a videotaped statement posted Dec. 27, CEO Bob Jordan reassured customers and said he was apologizing daily to employees. He pledged to “double-down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now.”

Where Did $7.2 Billion Go?

Some employees worry about the potentially devastating impact of the current crisis. Several call it an “existential threat” or “a make-or-break” situation, even though the company has received $7.2 billion in federal subsidies since 2020. That money was part of the government’s effort to keep the crippled airline industry afloat during the COVID pandemic.

According to the government-spending watchdog, openthebooks.com, “Southwest received so much federal aid, they turned a net income profit of $116 million by Q1 2021. They were the first airline to return to profitability after the pandemic.”

Some employees are resentful that they have been working for years under expired contracts, with stagnant salaries, while Southwest enjoyed profits and, earlier this month, announced that shareholders would once again receive dividends after a two-year COVID pause.

Kelleher, their beloved late leader, was known to say: “Take care of your employees. Even if it means sacrificing profits.”

Travelers search for their suitcases in a baggage holding area for Southwest Airlines at Denver International Airport in Colorado,  on Dec. 28, 2022. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

The interviewed employees said they don’t see that happening at Southwest now.  One flight attendant said she hasn’t seen a pay raise in more than a decade.

Workers also want to know why some of the billions in federal funds weren’t used to upgrade Southwest’s “antiquated” computer systems. Employees point to repeated “mini-meltdowns” in the past, including  earlier this year.

In April, for example, the flight attendants’ union convened members for an urgent webinar to address “the impact of this most recent technology failure and the chain of events ... which further stressed an already overtaxed system.

In that message sent to members, Transport Workers Union Local 556 further stated that management needed to be shown: “The time for excuses has passed, and we need results that our Members can rely on, not more broken technology and broken promises.”

A flight attendant sent The Epoch Times a screenshot of that message, and remarked: “They were fully aware.” That employee says the current problems have left her stranded for five days.

She thinks the company could have prevented its current embarrassing failures if it had invested in its computer systems rather than devoting money to “its woke agenda,” which includes an emphasis on “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

A longtime pilot said management’s choices, including pushing employees to get COVID vaccines under federal mandates, come “at a cost of employee loyalty.”

Because of that, when things got really tough, some employees didn’t have the gumption to go above and beyond the call of duty, the pilot said.

“This is a good study and example of corporate leadership failure in a very difficult time, from a company that supposedly was considered the best of its kind,” he said.

Without a major course correction, the pilot fears that the company he helped build “will fall into bankruptcy like all the others, be bought out, or liquidated,” he said, fearing that Southwest could plummet “from the pinnacle to the pit.”

CEO Knows Technology

Some employees and customers feel as though Jordan has been left holding the bag with problems he inherited. He became CEO less than a year ago.

Others blame Jordan for the debacle because of his background with the company. Southwest’s website says he is a 34-year veteran of the company who “began his career as a programmer in Technology.”

Fortune quoted him in an article Dec. 28 with this headline: “‘We’re behind,’ Southwest CEO admitted just a month ago. ‘As we’ve grown, we’ve outrun our tools.’”

That article also states that, at a Nov. 30 media day, executives gave little information about plans to improve flight operations. Instead, they discussed spending $2 billion on frills that passengers enjoy, such as wifi systems and electrical-power outlets in seats.

In addition, Fortune reported: “Some of Jordan’s top lieutenants rejected the idea that Southwest has been slow to adopt new technology.” The magazine quoted Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson saying: “Our scheduling system is the best in the world.”

A traveler looks at an information board showing flight cancellations and delays at Reagan National airport during a winter storm ahead of the Christmas holiday in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 23, 2022. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) “has provided endless data over the past several years to provide solutions,” union president Capt. Casey Murray wrote in a Dec. 26 message sent to members. “We all know the company has its head buried in the sand when it comes to its operational processes and IT,” referring to information technology.

He also cites “worsening and ever-increasing meltdowns,” of technology systems. Murray said the airline had enough crews in place to operate planned schedules but “scheduling roulette” has repeatedly caused problems.

The company’s solution, he wrote, is to hire more personnel. That doesn’t work, he said, because, “We aren’t undermanned. We’re under-managed. Even with the correct number of Pilots on any given day, the house of cards fails, and fail it does with increasing frequency and severity.”

Employees who spoke to The Epoch Times are adamant:  The company will never dig its way out of turmoil unless it revamps its dysfunctional internal systems. Employees also say the company must stop making crew and aircraft reassignments that seem nonsensical, and return to treating its employees the way Kelleher did.

“The legacy of Herb Kelleher lives in all of us, and we all so desperately want the company to go back to the way they used to be run,” said one pilot who was hired after Kelleher stepped down as CEO in 2001, but met the ex-CEO before his death in 2019. “People still rally behind his name... [But] the company does directly the opposite of what Herb would have done. Then morale goes into the dumper.”

And, in that pilot’s opinion, disregard for employees helped touch off a chain reaction that culminated in havoc.

The First Domino: Denver

Federal probes could take months to fully dissect what went awry during “the nightmare before–and after–Christmas,” as Jay Ratliff, an aviation expert, put it.

But glimpses into what went wrong are revealed in internal memos, interviews with employees, and screenshots from online discussion groups.

Denver, several employees say, is where the first domino fell.

On Dec. 21, facing a winter storm bringing subzero temperatures and heavy snowfall, a number of ground crew workers called in sick. Those workers reportedly lacked sufficient cold-weather gear, according to an online forum for airline employees.

Yet Southwest seemed to do little to rally its troops to face the punishing, stressful conditions, employees said.

Instead, management sent out a memo, citing “an unusually high number of absences” on Dec. 21 from ramp agents, and declaring an “operational emergency” effective Dec. 22 at 1:45 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. The memo threatened ramp agents with termination for any absences unless they provided a doctor’s excuse. Proof of online “Telehealth” visits would be unacceptable, the memo said.

A luggage handler watches a departing Southwest Airlines Boeing 737–700 jet at Denver International Airport on Jan. 22, 2014. Rick Wilking/Reuters

Chris Johnson, the vice president of ground operations, ended his memo by stating, “This is not the type of communication I (or any Leader) want to issue but it is needed to get the Agents back on track to serve our Customers.”

Still, employees say the underpaid, overworked ramp agents, whose work keeps them outside to face the elements, were fed up; they think the memo may have worsened the absenteeism. Ground crew members are treated “like freaking robots,” a pilot said, with “heavy, heavy-handed management” that seems to lack understanding of how physically demanding those jobs can be.

Although foul weather surely was largely to blame, mistakes added to the mix, according to a post in an online forum. Instead of having eight airplanes remain in Denver from Dec. 21-22, as planned, a total of 47 planes reportedly sat there after de-icing trucks froze.

And, the forum post said, someone apparently forgot to leave certain machinery running overnight to keep it warm. The Arctic blast reportedly rendered the equipment immobile and useless on the morning of the 22nd.

More Dominoes Tumble

Ripple effects from Denver’s problems reverberated across the nation, employees say, as the storm intensified and spread across much of the United States.

The impact may have been worse for Southwest because it still relies mostly on “point-to-point” routes, rather than  “hubs,” where passengers from smaller regional jets either disembark or connect to flights on larger airplanes. Hubs can more easily “absorb shocks to the system,” because there are so many flights going in and out, a pilot explained.

Another pilot, Capt. Michael Santoro, SWAPA vice president, told CNN that Southwest’s unusual configuration “can put our crews in the wrong places without airplanes, mismatched, and that’s what happened.”

The airline’s software loses track of the planes and personnel, Santoro said, “So they don’t know where we are.”

Those situations are frustrating for passengers and pilots alike, he said, adding, “We’re tired of apologizing for Southwest... And our hearts go out to all of our passengers.”

He thinks the airline should have canceled more flights destined for Denver after hearing of the especially bad weather forecast there.

But this, he said, is the bigger issue. For at least five years, SWAPA has been telling company officials, “'You guys need to fix your scheduling software, your scheduling systems, and how you operate our schedules’—all to no avail.”

The result: disruptions. “This is the largest disruption I’ve ever seen in my 16 years there,” Santoro said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Cascade Continued

On Dec. 23, airline employees were sent a memo from Lee Kinnebrew, a Southwest executive.

The airline had planned to treat the weather events at Denver and Chicago’s Midway airport as two separate events.

Southwest took steps at Denver “earlier than usual,” on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

“At the time, the weather forecasts did not indicate any reason to reduce the (Denver) schedule on Friday,” Kinnebrew wrote; Midway was expected to remain “safe for full operations through late afternoon Thursday,” or longer.

But conditions deteriorated rapidly, he wrote, as airline officials began receiving reports of “high winds, heavy precipitation, and ramp/taxiway cleanliness issues.”

A plane sits on the airfield as flight cancellations mount during a cold weather front as a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone hits the Upper Midwest, at Midway International Airport in Chicago on Dec. 22, 2022. Matt Marton/Reuters

Early Thursday morning, Southwest discovered some jets in Denver had frozen and were inoperable until midday. Making matters worse, an energy company in Denver “enacted rolling blackouts during normal business hours,” preventing refueling of some ground equipment, Kinnebrew wrote. The airline worked with many outside agencies to shift the blackout period and allow airport operations to continue.

As the storm moved east, strong winds blew into Chicago, then Cleveland, Ohio. At Midway, frozen hydraulic lines resulted in closure of some departure and/or arrival gates.

A litany of other problems surfaced at other airports scattered across the nation, Kinnebrew wrote. There was insufficient space for de-icing of airplanes in Chicago and Nashville. Dallas “struggled with ramp congestion.” In Las Vegas, a plumbing line leaked sludge into the pilots’ base station. A major fuel line had sprung a leak in Los Angeles.

“Many other locations struggled with frozen tires and congealed fuel,” Kinnebrew wrote. “All of this, and more, has increased the operational challenge over the past 48 hours.”

He acknowledged “a few technology issues,” including a scheduling glitch that was causing crews to be scheduled to work on flights that were canceled.

Employees say that was a vast understatement. After the computer system “fried,” and couldn’t handle the rapidly changing schedules, employees who tried to call their scheduling department were kept on hold. Flight attendants’ screenshots from their mobile phones showed hours-long hold times; one reported waiting more than 15 hours before getting a scheduler on the line.

Kinnebrew ended his note with encouragement: “As we move into the weekend and next week, we need all hands on deck to run the operation and protect the Crew Network.”

He said “much-improved operations” were expected for Christmas Eve. But that’s not what happened.

Flight disruptions show that a powerful winter storm in late December 2022 affected all airlines, but Southwest Airlines struggled after competitors rebounded, preliminary data show. U.S. Department of Transportation

A chart provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed that Southwest led the nation in flight cancellations from Dec. 21-27.

The preliminary data also shows that, while other airlines’ worst day for cancellations was Dec. 23, Southwest’s rate of cancellations continued to climb, peaking at 78 percent on Dec. 26; it dropped to 65 percent on Dec. 27, a day when all other airlines canceled 3 percent of flights.

Untold numbers of passengers have been stuck at airports amid the cancellations. Those who were able to fly often found themselves separated from their luggage. As of Dec. 27, one pilot told CNN that he estimated 15,000 suitcases remained unclaimed in Denver alone.

Glimmers of Hope

Southwest has taken a beating from all sides. Its employees are exhausted. Its customers are angry. Federal officials are subjecting the airline to increasing scrutiny. Dual investigations into the disruptions are planned by the Department of Transportation and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Some members of the public scoffed at that news, saying they have seen too many federal investigations that result in no action.

But one of the pilots who spoke to The Epoch Times reacted to the investigations this way, “Personally, it’s terrifying, right? I mean, we love our company... weak management has led us to the place where we’re gonna be investigated on two fronts by government. It makes us question if we’re gonna even have a job at this company in the next few years.”

He has trouble envisioning how the company will recover. The pilot wonders: How will executives win back the trust of their employees? “Because the trust and love of the employees of Southwest Airlines is literally the heartbeat. And, if you’ve lost that, how do you continue to run the airline under the same model?”

Amid blistering criticism, a few defenders have stepped forward online.

A woman named Nicole Taylor posted on Southwest’s Facebook page that a lot of Southwest’s problems were weather-related and outside its control.

“This is my favorite airline for many reasons,” Taylor wrote. “The people who work for Southwest are the best. They really try to be upbeat, funny (my favorite part helps me to relax)...PLEASE GIVE THIS GREAT STAFF YOUR RESPECT.”

During the past few days, a number of Southwest employees earned admiration from passengers who posted videos on social media. One pilot pitched in by slinging suitcases onto a conveyor belt outside, leading into the belly of an airplane; another pilot handed out hot beverages to weary travelers; still other employees handed out sandwiches.

Mike Casper, a retired Southwest employee, said in a text message: “I see retired flight attendants opening their homes to stranded crew members. I see flight attendants renting cars and driving between cities, with the car full of passengers, too.”

Casper said: “Despite the years of management failures (in IT and underhandedly dealing with labor groups), I see a resilience within the employees themselves. There’s still time to fix the mess... If Bob Jordan and the board of directors can honestly deal with the culture corrupted by power and greed, then there may be hope.”