A Southwest Airlines executive apologized for the company's holiday season meltdown in front of a panel of senators on Thursday.

The airline company canceled nearly 17,000 flights and stranded more than two million customers between December 21 and December 31 following a winter storm, far more than any other airline. The Senate Commerce Committee questioned executives in a hearing that focused on those disruptions.

"Let me be clear, we messed up," Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson told senators. "I want to sincerely and humbly apologize to those impacted by the disruption,"

"In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resiliency," Watterson explained.

The Southwest executive assured the committee that the company has been working to improve its systems.

"We are doing a system-wide review of our preparedness for winter operations and will implement any measures necessary to mitigate the risk of an event like this occurring in the future," Watterson said.

The company has budgeted $1.3 billion for 2023 investments, upgrades, and maintenance of their IT systems.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey, unsatisfied with the executive's explanation, demanded the airline company give a "cash hardship payment" to those affected.

Some Republicans, however, were more sympathetic with the airline company.

"I've had multiple conversations with senior leadership at Southwest. I'm confident they understand it was an epic screw-up and that they are committed to doing everything possible to prevent its recurrence," Sen.Ted Cruz of Texas said.

Watterson testified the airline had reimbursed 273,406 customers, and that every impacted customer had been emailed flyer points, along with an apology.

But, the airline company would not pay customers directly for their inconvenience unless it was "reimbursement of a flight they took in the disruption," Watterson said. 

The U.S. Transportation Department is also investigating Southwest for its flight scheduling throughout the disruption.

Share:
More In Business
Meta To Take Nearly 50% Cut Of Digital Asset Sales
Meta wants creators to make money from the metaverse, but it's going to take a large chunk of the cut. The tech giant is planning to keep nearly 50% of all digital asset sales within Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality platform that's considered an integral part of the company's unfolding metaverse. Rolf Illenberger, Co-founder and Managing Director of VRdirect, joined Cheddar to discuss why Meta is taking heat for this move, and what it could be doing as an alternative to help support creators, small businesses, and consumers.
Grayscale CEO on Investors Accessing Digital Economy With Future of Finance ETF
Grayscale recently launched its Future of Finance ETF ($GFOF) for investors to benefit from innovative businesses that it sees as critical to building the digital economy. CEO Michael Sonnenshein joined Cheddar to discuss the fund, companies making the most impact, and ways in which investors can expand holdings in the digital economy. “When we think about how investors should be building out their portfolios, we felt that there was a really important opportunity to also provide investors with access to the broadly defined digital economy, really, that confluence between technology and finance," he said.
Gas Prices Take Up Large Share Of Retail Spending
Gas prices took up a big share of consumer spending in March. Retail sales climbed 0.5% from the previous month as Americans are forced to spend more money on food, gasoline, and other necessities. Kayla Bruun, Economic Analyst at Morning Consult, breaks down her outlook on consumer spending as prices continue to rise.
Load More