Our path forward
Our Purpose has always been to connect you to what’s important in your life. We fell short on that Purpose in December 2022 when extreme weather and an unprecedented number of flight cancellations overwhelmed our ability to recover and serve you properly.
Throughout 2023, we have made progress on investments to improve our resiliency, prepare for the upcoming winter season, and deliver on the action plan. We are ready for this winter season, and our relentless pursuit of improvement will continue to guide our path forward.
Progress we’ve made
Improving Winter Operations
What we’ve done: We have reinforced our airport infrastructure, increased available equipment, and bolstered overall winter preparedness at key airports with the potential for severe winter weather to help our Employees function more effectively in severe weather.
Initiatives:
- We have increased available equipment to manage the effects of winter weather:
- Additional deicing trucks, pads, and ground equipment
- Increased storage capacity of deicing fluid at key airports
- Obtained more engine inlet plugs and heaters to protect aircraft and ground equipment in very low temperatures
- We have introduced the SureWx liquid water equivalent system to better gauge dynamic local weather conditions and provide more precise information for Pilots and Dispatchers to know how much time an aircraft has to depart based on the efficacy of anti-icing fluids in winter conditions.
- We have increased staff at airports where extreme cold requires rotating Employees working outside.
For Additional Information:
Enhancing Cross-Team Collaboration
What we’ve done: We have enhanced collaboration across Teams and improved tools and procedures to streamline communication and decision-making.
Initiatives:
- In early 2023, we consolidated Leadership of our Network Planning Team, who designs our flight schedules, and Network Operations Control, who oversees daily operations of the airline.
- We have implemented enhanced real-time dashboards to monitor the health of our network, providing increased visibility into things like impending close-in flight cancellations and allowing us to escalate awareness of potential issues.
- We developed a seasonal planning forum with operational experts and Leaders from various groups intimately involved in our operation. For winter specifically, we are formalizing a Winter Operations Playbook that Leaders at Southwest® will use throughout the season.
For Additional Information:
Accelerating Operational Investments
What we’ve done: We reprioritized our timeline for upgrading tools and technology that help us recover our operation more quickly during extreme weather and in all seasons.
Initiatives:
- We have completed several upgrades to the software that reassigns our Crews during disruptions to improve capacity and to be able to handle different types of solutions.
- We increased our phone system call capacity to better handle large call volumes from both our Customers and our Flight Crews.
- We have improved the tool responsible for electronically notifying Flight Crews of their new flight assignments.
- We are introducing an optimization tool to support simultaneous large-scale solutions for our aircraft and Crew networks when unexpected disruptions occur due to weather.
For Additional Information:
Continuing to transform your Customer Experience
In addition to our action plan, we’re continuing to invest in your Customer Experience.
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Read the action plan
Dive deeper into an overview of the root causes of December's disruption and our conclusive plan.
Read now ›
