Employee scheduling system contributed to major Southwest Airlines service disruptions, but company is likely to survive

When things went downhill for Southwest Airlines, they went downhill fast. During the 2022 winter holiday travel period, the Dallas-headquartered airline cancelled 6,500 flights in just three days. Winter weather played a role, but the low-cost carrier was disrupted far more than other airlines. Reports from within Southwest suggest that an outdated employee scheduling system contributed, says Prof. Karl Moore. “It may well be that Southwest relies on a system that very much needs to be brought up to date. Perhaps this is an area where Southwest has been too low cost in their spending.” But while the cancellations earned Southwest negative publicity, Moore said this were unlikely to be its “death knell”. They are just too important to air travel in the US.