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Flights froze during the holiday season as Southwest Airlines blames IT breakdown for leaving thousands stranded in airports.
According to a transcript from CNN, COO Andrew Watterson said outdated scheduling software caused extended delays and cancellations.
In the end, Southwest had to schedule crews to flights manually. Watterson described it as an “extraordinarily difficult” and “tedious, long process.”
CEO Andrew Watterson explained that outdated scheduling software made it difficult to reassign flights during the ongoing winter storm.
Southwest’s crew schedulers frantically tried to match available crew with flight-ready aircraft. However, the Federal Aviation Administration strictly regulates when staff can work.
Watterson said their technology could not match crew members with aircraft. As a result, these factors worsened the airline’s scheduling efforts.
