Flying blind: Southwest's epic meltdown

Should the airline improve its infrastructure?

Baggage claim.
(Image credit: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web:

After canceling nearly 17,000 flights over the Christmas holiday, Southwest Airlines may have gained the distinction of creating "the worst service disruption" ever experienced by a major U.S. carrier, said Joseph Guinto in Texas Monthly. This was "an unforced error" with deep roots in years of Southwest management philosophy. The airline, while beloved by customers, was known for its "penny pinching," and legendary founder and CEO Herb Kelleher believed that Southwest "didn't need to buy every 'shiny new' tech toy on the market." Southwest's "open seating" is well known; less well known is that with its rigid, aging reservation systems, "Southwest couldn't have assigned seats even if it wanted to" until just a few years ago. Long before this disaster, "Southwest's top brass" knew that its flight-tracking and scheduling software "could be overmatched in the event of an unusual weather or air traffic event." Southwest has long been a "shameful" example of a company "incurring technical debt," said Zeynep Tufekci in The New York Times — the fancy term for corporations trying to make do with old and deficient software. And without greater accountability, "we may see more fiascoes like this one."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us