‘PRECARIOUS’

Southwest Employees Had Been Warning of a System Meltdown for YEARS

Southwest Pilots Association President Capt. Casey Murray said some of the company’s processes had not been updated since the 1990s.

Southwest Pilots Association President Capt. Casey Murray said the airline’s employees had warned for years that antiquated systems could cause a catastrophic meltdown like the one that happened over the holiday weekend. More than 60 percent of the airline’s flights were canceled, far more than any other airline, suggesting that the winter storm that pummeled the country was not entirely to blame. Another 62 percent of flights—about 2,500 flights—were canceled again on Wednesday. Southwest’s outdated operational systems made it exceptionally hard for the company to locate crew members, get planes back in the air, or rebook customers. According to NewsNation, Murray blamed the meltdown on old processes, some of which he said hadn’t been updated since the 90s, and mismanagement. “On a podcast I said I fear that we’re one thunderstorm, one ATC event, one brown out away from a complete meltdown. Whether that’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s, that’s the precarious situation we’re in,” Murray said. “We can’t move forward until we make up for the failure.”