Southwest is adding deicing trucks after December breakdown
Southwest Airlines says it's buying more deicing trucks and taking other steps to avoid another fiasco like the widespread cancellations it suffered in December
The CEO of Southwest Airlines pushed back Tuesday against the view that his airline’s December breakdown was caused by a failure to invest enough money in crew-scheduling technology, instead blaming extremely cold weather that forced it to stop flying at some airports.
Southwest said it is buying more deicing trucks and lining up additional deicing pads at key airports and buying more engine covers and heaters to avoid a repeat.
The airline also said it will increase staffing during extremely cold weather, and it will improve phone systems for customers and employees.
A severe winter storm just before Christmas affected all airlines, but Southwest struggled far more than the others to recover. It wound up canceling nearly 17,000 flights in 10 days before resuming a normal schedule. Unions for pilots and flight attendants said technology used to reassign crews to planes bogged down, and workers spent hours on hold when they called headquarters for instructions.
