Southwest’s “point-to-point” model involves planes flying consecutive routes and picking up crews at those locations. But that model has the operational advantage of quickly flying crews and planes out of the hub to where they’re needed. United, American and Delta typically fly from smaller markets to hubs, requiring passengers flying between small cities to change planes. Southwest cancellations continue as airline deals with 'meltdown' fallout Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Travelers tag their bags at a Southwest Airlines ticket counter during the busy Christmas holiday season at Orlando International Airport on Decemin Orlando, Florida. “We fly a point-to-point network, which can put our crews in the wrong places, without airplanes.” Mike Santoro, vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told CNN Tuesday. “We don’t have the normal hub like the other major airlines do,” Capt. Unlike its rivals, which operate with a “hub-and-spoke” model, Southwest prides itself with a “point-to-point” business strategy that allows passengers to travel directly between smaller markets. Southwest’s schedule includes shorter flights with tighter turnaround times, which caused some of the problems during the storm. Many airlines still lack sufficient staff to recover when events like bad weather cause delays or flight crews max out the hours they’re allowed to work under federal safety regulations. Denver quickly developed into one of the nation’s biggest problem spots for cancellations.Īlthough Southwest says it was fully staffed for the holiday weekend, illness makes adjusting to increased system stress difficult. Southwest said that prior to the storm last week, staff levels at the Denver airport became so low that it enacted “operational emergency” staffing procedures. And the so-called “tripledemic” has been surging across America, leaving people and their families – including workers at Southwest and their families – sick with Covid, the flu and RSV. The storm hit Chicago and Denver hard, where Southwest has two of its biggest hubs – Chicago Midway airport and Denver International airport. Southwest aims to to resume normal service by the end of the week.Īre you stranded in an airport because of Southwest? Share your story. The airline purposefully reduced its flight schedule by two thirds this week to reset its operations, which CEO Bob Jordan likened to re-assembling a giant puzzle. And outdated scheduling technology left Southwest scrambling to match crew with planes. The company also has a unique operations model, focused on smaller planes going to smaller cities, that failed spectacularly when America went into a deep freeze and was blanketed with snow. Southwest got unlucky with the location of the storm and its timing. Why did Southwest take so long to get its operations back on track? The airline said it is set to resume normal schedules on Friday. Still, Southwest Airlines canceled another 2,300 flights today, long after its rivals had resumed normal service. The Christmas storm that dumped many feet of snow across most of America was mostly over by Monday.
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