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
Aurora Cannabis CEO on Earnings, Says Transformation Plan 'On Track'
Aurora Cannabis showed a beat on sales for its quarterly earnings report, a positive sign despite a loss of $59 million. CEO Miguel Martin, joined Cheddar Movers to discuss its latest earnings and prospects for future growth. "If you look at our core businesses, they've all had a great quarter, so steady as we go. Our transformation plan is absolutely on track and we feel really good about where the company's going," he said. "Our balance sheet has never been stronger." Martin also discussed entering the U.S. market and the prospects for the medical marijuana market.
Elon Musk Gives Starship Update for First Time in Three Years
Elon Musk announced that he expects Starship to reach orbit in 2022. The SpaceX CEO delivered updates about the largest space vehicle to be constructed from its Texas facility. Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder at Phantom Space, joined Cheddar News to talk about the future of Starship. "I've always done wrong by betting against Elon," he said. "The one thing that I find very curious is it launches 100 metric tons into space, and last year, in the entire year, we launched 750. So, you know, with about seven launches, he could launch every satellite on Earth."
Tesla String of Recalls, California Discrimination Lawsuit Raises New Concerns
Amid a string of recalls for their electric cars, Tesla is also facing a lawsuit over workplace discrimination. The electric automaker is being accused by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing of a pattern of racial discrimination against Black workers. Caleb Silver, Editor-in-Chief at Investopedia, joined Cheddar News to discuss the numerous technical and safety issues that led to the recalls and the allegations of systemic racist abuse at its Fremont plant. "Tesla disputes these claims, but still you can’t avoid the pattern," he said.
Load More