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Southwest Airlines COO to Appear Before Senate Committee to Explain Holiday Travel Debacle and Apologize for Shortfalls

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Key takeaways:

  • Andrew Watterson, Chief Operating Officer of Southwest Airlines, will appear before the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to explain the airline’s holiday travel debacle.
  • The problems were caused by a combination of a winter storm that was worse than expected and operational shortfalls.
  • Southwest Airlines has since apologized for the incident and has taken steps to ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future.

Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson is set to appear before the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday to explain the airline’s holiday travel debacle that led to more than 16,000 flight cancellations and millions of passengers getting stranded.

Watterson’s prepared remarks, obtained by NBC News, indicate that he will tell the committee that the airline “messed up” and that the problems were caused by a combination of a winter storm that was worse than expected and operational shortfalls.

The massive flight cancellations sparked outrage among customers and investigations from lawmakers and transportation regulators. Watterson will tell the committee that the airline did not have enough “winter operational resilience” to handle the situation.

Southwest Airlines has since apologized for the incident and has taken steps to ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future. The airline has implemented a new system to better monitor weather conditions and has increased staffing levels to ensure that customer service issues are addressed quickly and efficiently.

The Senate hearing is expected to provide further insight into the incident and will likely result in recommendations for how airlines can better handle similar situations in the future.

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