What caused Southwest Airlines’ operational meltdown? Some want Congress to investigate.

To visit her family in Abilene over the holidays, Marilyn Baker typically relies on Southwest Airlines’ flight from Baltimore to Dallas Love Field.

After getting stranded in Jacksonville last weekend cost her more than $1,000 in unexpected lodging, transport and pet care costs, she’s not sure if Southwest is still her best bet.

Baker’s Sunday flight from Jacksonville to Baltimore was one of more than 2,000 trips that got canceled over the weekend. A week after the operations fiasco, customers and the public still have no idea what went wrong.

On Saturday, the company blamed the meltdown on air traffic control issues and weather. Meanwhile, the company and pilots’ union denied pervasive rumors of employees striking to protest the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which had been announced days before.

“I’ve since watched the CEO on TV and felt he wasn’t genuine,” Baker told the Star-Telegram on Thursday. “He just wasn’t being forthright. Just be honest about what the issue is. It clearly wasn’t air traffic control and it clearly wasn’t weather, so don’t say it was. If everyone walked off the job, say, ‘Everyone walked off the job.’”

Airline passenger advocate Bill McGee of Consumer Reports believes Southwest owes the public an explanation and — because the airline received billions in taxpayer bailout cash — a rebate.

The airline’s meltdown last weekend was the symptom of a larger problem, he said, and one that requires federal intervention. After months of operational tumult and little transparency from Southwest, experts like McGee are calling for Congress to step in.

Experts want answers as customers question loyalty

When airlines received more than $50 billion in coronavirus bailout cash, consumer advocates begged the Trump administration and Congress to require consumer protections as a condition for the cash, McGee said.

“The only thing [airlines] were asked for all this money, billions and billions of dollars, they were asked to make sure that they had enough staffing, that they didn’t lay people off and didn’t encourage early retirements,” he said.

But, last year, Southwest and its competitors offered generous early retirement packages to avoid layoffs. Nearly 17,000 Southwest employees, or 28% of the company’s workforce, signed up for extended leaves of absence or early retirement.

Since then, the company has faced a shortage of pilots and other staff, resulting in cancellations throughout the summer. When pilots sued and threatened to picket over the winter holidays in protest of their grueling schedules, the company trimmed its fall schedule — but not enough to prevent a meltdown.

After last weekend, “We are calling for Congress to investigate this, because Congress is the one that gave them three bailouts and gave them billions and billions of our taxpayer dollars with one caveat,” said McGee. “Southwest and others have blown it.”

House Transportation Committee member U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, of Irving, said in a statement: “Anytime there are major disruptions like what we saw this past weekend, I am going to be asking questions because North Texans deserve honesty and transparency.”

In response to the recommendation of a congressional inquiry, a statement from the company said: “Southwest Airlines resumed normal operations by Wednesday. We thank our Employees for the hospitality they’ve shown our Customers during this challenging time. We extended our deepest apologies to Customers who have been impacted and look forward to welcoming them back on a future Southwest flight.”

As systemic issues persist, customers are left to their own devices heading into a busy holiday travel season.

Jess McCoy lives in Pittsburgh and has a trip to Las Vegas planned for later this month. While she and her husband have always flown Southwest, the airline’s recent notoriety has made her question her loyalty, she said.

When she saw what was going on with Southwest last weekend, she began to worry about her upcoming travel plans.

“If we cancel, we know we’re not going to get money back,” she said. “Just a voucher,” which could be worth little if problems persist.

McCoy has decided to wait it out. And she’s not alone in facing uncertainty about future travel.

“I don’t know how you can travel Southwest and expect to get to your destination with any degree of reliability, because we don’t know what the real problem is,” said Mike Slack, an aviation attorney with offices in Fort Worth and Austin.

So, what do the experts recommend?

“Go fly an airline not having problems,” Slack suggested. “But I don’t think you can safely predict who is next.”

Countering the vaccine mandate protest theory

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly appeared on “Good Morning America” Tuesday to apologize to customers and employees.

He also denied a theory championed by conservatives online — that the operational fiasco was caused by employees striking in protest of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Southwest on Oct. 4 announced employees are required to get vaccinated by Dec. 8 or risk termination, in compliance with President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating vaccination for federal employees and contractors.

The day before Southwest Airlines began experiencing widespread flight cancellations, the union representing Southwest flight attendants demanded the company adjust its vaccine mandate.

According to a document obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the flight attendant union, Transport Workers Union Local 556, is asking the company to permit valid religion and disability-based exemptions to the mandate. Those given an exemption would continue to mask and receive regular COVID-19 testing.

“There are better alternatives than comply or be terminated,” the letter said.

TWU Local 556 isn’t the only Southwest union pushing back against the mandate.

Southwest Airlines Pilot Association on Oct. 8 asked a court to temporarily block the company’s vaccine mandate, according to court documents.

In the filing, the union argues the mandate violates the Railway Labor Act.

“The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021,” the document read.

SWAPA’s request related to the vaccine mandate is the latest in its ongoing lawsuit against the company for implementing a forced time-off program and changing other working conditions without bargaining with the union.

Kelly walked back the termination threat on “Good Morning America” Tuesday, saying the company will comply with the executive order, but “we’re not going to fire any employees over this.”

Southwest Airlines’ ‘credibility problem’

In the midst of the weekend meltdown, Southwest’s pilots’ union quickly denied a strike caused the operational issues. It took the company a few days to release a cogent explanation.

Southwest on Oct. 9 tweeted: “ATC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation.”

About 24 hours later, the Federal Aviation Administration obliquely fact-checked Southwest’s excuse.

“No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday,” the FAA tweeted. “Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.”

Three days after the airline started to experience a domino effect collapse of operations, Southwest Airlines apologized to customers and employees for the weekend’s more than 2,000 flight cancellations.

On the evening of Friday, Oct. 8, weather in Florida left crews and planes out of place. The strain “cascaded throughout the weekend and into Monday,” a statement from the company said. It also denied the veracity of vaccine mandate strike claims.

The “cascade” rather than the “weather” is the problem here, McGee explained.

“When an airline says, ‘Well, we’re having this massive meltdown, and it’s due to weather and air traffic control,’ as some of the statements coming from Southwest indicated, the very simple question you have to ask is: why is it affecting you and not all the other airlines?”

Blaming delays and cancellations on “weather” also helps shield airlines from liability; Southwest’s contract of carriage states the company isn’t liable for cancellations or delays caused by “force majeure” or an “act of god.”

“I don’t trust anything that Southwest is saying publicly right now, because I think they have a credibility problem,” McGee said. “And I don’t think I’m alone.”

He’s not.

“I don’t know whether it’s financial,” said Slack. “I don’t know whether it’s personnel. Or simply their inability to meet the flight schedule they put in place. And their realization they can’t do it and it’s falling apart like a house of cards.

“Whatever they’re putting out, it looks like BS to me.”