Our path forward
Our Purpose has always been to connect you to what’s important in your life. We fell short on that Purpose this past December when extreme weather and an unprecedented number of flight cancellations overwhelmed our ability to recover and serve you properly.
Following these events, we conducted a thorough internal review, working with our Board of Directors, and engaged respected aviation consultancy Oliver Wyman, for a third-party assessment. From that work, we have identified key root causes of the event and developed a conclusive action plan to address them.
Our action plan
Improve winter operations
Reinforcing airport infrastructure, increasing the availability of winter equipment, and bolstering our overall preparedness for extreme winter conditions
Learn more ›
Accelerate operational investments
Investing in technology and tools that will improve our recovery during irregular operations
Learn more ›
Enhance cross-Team collaboration
Enhancing the way our Teams work and communicate together to streamline decision-making
Learn more ›Improve winter operations
Root cause: We had insufficient winter infrastructure and equipment in key airport locations to adequately react to a winter storm of Elliott’s epic scale, velocity, and duration, and we faced staffing challenges from the need to rotate Employees outside in bitter winter weather. These issues hindered our ability to keep our Flight Crew networks flowing from key crew bases.
Action plan: We are reinforcing our airport infrastructure, increasing available equipment, and bolstering overall winter preparedness at key airports where there is potential for severe winter weather in order to help our Employees function more effectively in severe weather.
Initiatives:
- We are increasing available equipment to manage the effects of winter weather.
- Deicing trucks, pads, and ground equipment
- Storage capacity of deicing fluid at key airports
- Engine covers and heaters to protect aircraft and ground equipment in very low temperatures
- We are implementing new tools that provide Pilots additional real-time insight into the amount of time they have to depart after an aircraft has been deiced.
- We are adding staff at airports where extreme cold requires rotating Ground Operations Employees working outside.
- We are reassessing our fuel management process for ground equipment to more reliably operate during extreme winter conditions.
- We are refining ramp-cleaning procedures to better keep surfaces free of frozen precipitation.
Accelerate operational investments
Root cause: The pace and volume of close-in cancellations forced our aircraft and Crew Scheduling Teams to rely on time-consuming manual processes that could not keep pace with the volume of individual scheduling issues.
Action plan: We are reprioritizing our timeline for upgrading tools and technology that will help us recover our operation faster during extreme weather.
Initiatives:
- We have already completed a software upgrade that reassigns our Crews during disruptions.
- We have already increased our phone system call capacity to better handle large call volumes from both our Flight Crews and our Customers.
- We are improving the tool responsible for electronically notifying Flight Crews of their new flight assignments and allowing them to electronically acknowledge changes in their work plan.
Enhance cross-Team collaboration
Root cause: Compartmentalized communications and gaps in our processes between important operational workgroups resulted in bottlenecks.
Action plan: We are enhancing collaboration across Teams and improving the tools and procedures to streamline communication and decision-making.
Initiatives:
- We have already consolidated the Team who designs our flight schedule with the Team overseeing the day-to-day operations into one Department.
- We have implemented enhanced real-time dashboards for increased visibility into things like impending close-in flight cancellations to better monitor the health of our network.
- We are enhancing capabilities to alert, define, and escalate awareness of potential issues.
- We are establishing clearer lines of communication among the groups operating the airline.
Continuing to transform your Customer Experience
In addition to our action plan, we’re continuing to invest in your Customer Experience. Some of our new initiatives include increasing self-service options, bag tracking, and implementing more real-time day-of-travel communications.
Learn more ›
Read the event summary and action plan
Dive deeper into an overview of the root causes of December's disruption and our conclusive plan.
Read now ›
