Senators demand answers from Southwest Airlines CEO after holiday meltdown

Over a dozen U.S. senators sent a letter Thursday to Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan, demanding answers on a variety of issues related to the budget airline's widespread flight disruptions over the holidays.

The letter, which requested a written response by Feb. 2, criticized the meltdown over the holiday season in which Southwest canceled nearly 16,000 flights, calling it a "disaster" and a "debacle."  The senators said they had heard from constituents who "have suffered immeasurably from these cancelations — beyond simply the cost of hotels, meals, and alternative transportation."

It featured a bevy of questions ranging from ones about Southwest’s "outdated" crew-scheduling software to baggage reunification to executive compensation and stock dividends. They also sought information on staffing and the number of requests the airline had processed, granted or denied for refunds of canceled tickets and reimbursements of hotels, meals and alternate transportation. 

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"Although winter storm Elliott disrupted flights across the country, every other airline operating in the United States managed to return to a regular flight schedule shortly thereafter — except Southwest," the senators wrote. "Southwest must take all necessary steps to ensure that this debacle never happens again."

Jordan said in a video late last month that the airline’s "highly complex" network had been thrown off by the storm, with planes and crew members "in dozens of locations" out of position, FOX Business previously reported. Operations returned to normalcy for Southwest on Dec. 30. 

The 15 senators who signed the letter include Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.

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Southwest responds

"We appreciate the concerns expressed in the letter from the Senators and share in the commitment to ensuring Southwest’s customers are properly cared for and that actions are taken to mitigate risks of this happening again," Southwest said in a statement to FOX Business.

The company apologized for the flight disruptions and pledged to "restore our legendary Southwest Hospitality and reliability at levels that customers and employees expect from us." Southwest also said it "hope[s] the recent refunds, reimbursements of expenses, and goodwill gestures to our customers and employees demonstrate that we want to go above and beyond in earning their trust once again."

Southwest created a webpage for refund and reimbursement requests, locating baggage and rebooking. It has also sent affected customers an offer of 25,000 extra Rapid Rewards points. 

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Jordan said Jan. 5 that a "vast majority" of luggage separated from its owners have either been returned or are "on their way." He also promised the company would "continue to upgrade the tools and processes" it uses.

The meltdown, the airline said Friday, could result in a $725-825 million loss for the fourth quarter.

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