Why is Southwest Airlines having so many problems?
Unlike other large U. S. Southwest used point-to-point operations in 2022, making it unusually vulnerable to scheduling disruptions because its available pilots and flight attendants were not concentrated at its hubs and it could not easily reroute passengers by sending . DOT’s investigation found that Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights – one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, Calif, and another between Baltimore, Md. Cleveland, Ohio – that resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022.Antiquated computer infrastructure and software systems used for managing and crewing flights contributed heavily to the quantity of flight cancellations; Southwest Airlines was unable at points to locate crew members to adequately staff flights.