Southwest Airlines executives on Thursday admitted that they had summer problems in their operations. The airline admitted that they struggled to keep up with the travel demand as more people are flying again.
In June, Southwest’s on-time performance was at 62.4% and 67% in July so far. Southwest had better performance in the same months in 2019, when Southwest had to cater to more travelers. In 2019, the airline had a 75.1% on-time performance in June and 80.3% in July.
Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said that “We need to and we will do better than that moving forward”.
The US Department of Transportation ranking for both June and July is set by late summer. However, so far, the airline is right in the middle mainly because of their summer problems. The airline even has to cut back on flights in the first half of July.
Variety of Summer Problems
Southwest had a variety of issues that led to delays and canceled flights. There are the weather and technological glitches in June. Also, there are reports that they are understaffed. When it comes to labor shortage issues, the airline is sending mixed signals. For one, Southwest executives denied that they are dealing with staffing shortages. According to them, they have enough manpower when the summer began. They said that they only had a few labor issues including fewer ground service workers.
On the other hand, Southwest said that they are “still ramping up the operation”.Van de Ven explained that Southwest had a significant jump from March to June. There were 650 more daily round trip flights in June compared to March. Then, you also have flights departing from major cities that are 90% full. He said that it is a “monumental increase, and it was done in a short period of time”.
To fix the problem, employees are offered incentives to work even on their days off. Plus, the airline is adding staff to busy cities. Van de Ven also anticipates that the conditions are going to improve as the summer vacation season ends.
