Southwest Airlines Operations Back To Normal After Being Crippled By Storm

(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines was up and running on a normal schedule on Friday after a massive winter storm crippled operations this week and exposed problems at the low-cost carrier.

Dallas-based Southwest struggled to recover from a mammoth weekend storm, cancelling at least 16,000 flights since last Friday and leaving passengers as well as its own crews stranded during the busy Christmas holiday rush.

The airline showed 41 cancellations, or 1% of total flights, on Friday, according to flight data tracker FlightAware, far less than the nearly 60% cancellations on previous days.

Chief Executive Bob Jordan said he was confident the airline would run a very tight operation on Friday, and acknowledged a variety of factors that led to the company's nosedive.

"Let me just be straightforward here: the storm had an impact but we had impacts beyond the storm that obviously impacted Southwest very differently," Jordan said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

The challenge of moving crews around, keeping the airline running, could not be met by Southwest's regular operations and tools, he said, including the vast reach of the storm and shutdowns across so many cities as well as record cold temperatures that froze runways.

"This is something that we have really never seen in our 51 years," Jordan said, "There'll be lessons learned from this and we'll continue to make more investments."
The bitter weather was just part of the problem for Southwest. The airline's dated technology failed to map crews to flights and its point-to-point operational structure created chaos for schedules, the company has admitted and union members have said.

Southwest Airlines has promised to reimburse passengers for expenses such as hotels and car rentals in addition to refunding tickets and said there would be a still-undetermined hit to its earnings.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a letter to Jordan on Thursday warned that the company would be held accountable if it did not fulfill commitments to customers for "controllable delays and cancellations."

The Southwest chief executive said he had a "great conversation" with Buttigieg and their goals were aligned.

DC To Require COVID Test For Visitors From Hot Spot States

WASHINGTON (AP) — With virus numbers rising locally and nationally and the holiday travel season looming, the nation’s capital is revamping its COVID-19 travel restrictions. Starting next week, visitors coming to Washington, D.C., from a state classified as high risk will be required to take a COVID-19 test and receive a negative result within 72 hours before traveling. They will also be asked to take another test locally if they plan on staying here more than three days. The new system replaces the one in place since July, which required visitors from hot-spot states to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged Thursday that the quarantine system, which was entirely voluntary, was probably being violated by many visitors.

“We continue to ask people to limit their travel and stay home,” Bowser said. “We also know that people are going to come here and they’re more than likely not going to quarantine for 14 days if they do.” It also was unrealistic that travelers would abide by the quarantine rules, particularly as Washington’s hot-spot list has grown to encompass 42 states. There also was no way to enforce it. Under the new restrictions, private institutions such as hotels, universities, employers and houses of worship are permitted to demand proof of negative COVID-19 tests before allowing people to enter, but Bowser said the government won’t be involved in such enforcement. “Nobody is going to be asking you at the airport, or on bridges or roads or at the train station, to show your papers,” Bowser said. Visitors from neighboring Maryland and Virginia are exempt, as well as those staying in D.C. less than 24 hours and those traveling on essential business. Washington, Maryland and Virginia have all witnessed rising infection rates in recent weeks, with Maryland and Virginia experiencing the most dramatic spikes. The main infection metrics in Washington, D.C., have doubled in recent weeks, but are still around half of the local peak in May. The city reported 81 new infections Thursday, for an overall total of 17, 682, with 650 deaths.