by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:55 PM ET, Thu February 9, 2023
Southwest Airlines faced heavy criticism during a hearing in front of the United States Senate on Thursday due to the more than 16,000 flight cancellations during the busy winter holiday travel period.
During the hearing, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee recounted some of the most disturbing stories from the nearly two million customers impacted by a series of delays and cancellations caused by winter weather and technological shortcomings.
When asked for an explanation about how the travel issues could've happened, officials from Southwest and the carrier's pilot union disagreed about the cause. While the airline mostly cited winter weather, the union blamed "poor preparation and a failure to modernize technology."
Senator Ted Cruz called the travel disruptions "an epic screwup," and Senator Amy Klobuchar called the cancellations "unacceptable." Cruz also said he believes Southwest executives "are committed to doing everything possible to prevent its recurrence."
"We're always going to have these weather events and some of us believe they're going to become more severe," Commerce Committee chair Senator Maria Cantwell said. "But what we want is to have a system that is ready to address that."
Southwest Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan did not appear at the hearings, but Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson was in attendance and acknowledged that mistakes were made and technology issues played a role in the disruptions.
"Let me be clear: we messed up," Watterson said. "None of this is an excuse. There were technology issues during the disruption, we don't dispute that."
Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) president Casey Murray blamed the company and its leadership for a "failure to modernize crew management processes and technology and to prepare for the storm."
The holiday travel meltdown was estimated to cost the carrier more than $1 billion and caused the U.S. Department of Transportation to launch a full-scale investigation.
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