Southwest CEO Shares Excuses for Travel Chaos After Feds Launch Probe

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan dropped a video statement Tuesday night to explain the airlines’ disastrous week of canceled and delayed flights—kind of—just one day after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced plans to investigate the airline’s hellish holiday season. “Here's why this giant puzzle is taking us several days to solve. Southwest is the largest carrier in the country, not only because of our value and our values, but because we build our flight schedule around communities, not hubs,” he said. “After days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up.” Jordan said Southwest will continue to fly a reduced schedule for the next few days, and hopes to return to normal by next week. He also acknowledged that the conditions the airline’s workers have faced as they deal with the issues have been unsavory—adding that he’s “apologizing to them daily” and vowing to make improvements. He also said he reached out to Pete Buttigeig, the Secretary of Transportation, to discuss the issues the airline faced through the holiday weekend.