Southwest Airlines Makes a Major Passenger-Friendly Change

The airline has a long way to go to win back consumer trust, but it's putting its best wing forward.

Jul 3, 2023 - 18:30

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Southwest Airlines Makes a Major Passenger-Friendly Change

Airlines have a unique place in the business world because sometimes customers have no choice.

You rarely have a terrible meal at a restaurant with a rude waiter and a manager who does nothing to solve your problems. That's because, in most cases, you can simply eat someplace else next time.

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With airlines, however, that's not always the case. If you have a business meeting in Duluth and only one airline has a good flight option, you probably fly that airline even if past experiences were bad. You may look really hard for other choices, but that meeting, family event, or other obligation isn't going to move just because you had a bad experience on Southwest Airlines (LUV) - Get Free Report over the holidays.

That offers airlines a chance at redemption that other businesses don't get. You may have been one of the tens of thousands of people stranded by Southwest last holiday season, but if the airline is your only choice for getting where you need to go at a decent price, you're probably willing to give it a second chance.

Southwest Airlines fully plans to take advantage of that and while other airlines are cutting their schedules, Southwest is adding routes.

Southwest has been dealing with a shortage of pilots.
Image source: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Southwest Expands Its Winter Schedule

While Southwest has been battling a shortage of pilots that will soon be overshadowed by a shortage of planes due to Boeing (BA) - Get Free Report missing scheduled deliveries, it has not skipped its usual Winter route expansion. While rivals, including JetBlue (JBLU) - Get Free Report and Delta Air Lines (DAL) - Get Free Report have cut back on flights from certain areas, Southwest has expansion plans.

Southwest plans to "resume daily service beginning Jan. 8, 2024, between Dallas and Fort Myers, FL. and between Dallas and Palm Springs, CA. A few days later, on Jan. 14, 2024, Southwest will resume flights on Sundays between Dallas and Louisville, Ky.

The airline also plans to add service beginning Jan. 13, 2024, on Saturdays between Omaha, Neb., and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Fla.

Southwest's full winter expansion includes these routes beginning on Sat., Jan. 13, 2024, between:

Albany, NY. and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood.
Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood.
Buffalo, NY and Fort Myers.
Louisville and Fort Myers.
Providence, R.I. and Fort Myers.
Cleveland and Tampa, Fla.
Cincinnati and Orlando.
Detroit and Orlando.
Minneapolis/St. Paul and Orlando. (offered Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Weekends)

Beginning on the same day, the airline will offer weekly service on Saturdays between:

Hartford, Conn., and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood.
Grand Rapids, Mich. and Fort Myers.
Washington, D.C. (Reagan National) and Fort Myers.
Minneapolis/St. Paul and Tampa.

Southwest Can Win People Back

The best path forward for Southwest is getting people on its planes. If it can deliver a positive winter experience, it can show passengers that its efforts to fix the problems that grounded thousands of flights last winter have been addressed.

In response to its holiday season meltdown, Southwest released an action plan designed to address what went wrong. This includes a number of steps, which it details on its website:

Reinforcing airport infrastructure, increasing the availability of winter equipment, and bolstering our overall preparedness for extreme winter conditions.
Investing in technology and tools that will improve our recovery during irregular operations.
Enhancing the way our Teams work and communicate together to streamline decision-making.

The airline explained its winter problems on the page:

"We had insufficient winter infrastructure and equipment in key airport locations to adequately react to a winter storm of Elliott’s epic scale, velocity, and duration, and we faced staffing challenges from the need to rotate Employees outside in bitter winter weather. These issues hindered our ability to keep our Flight Crew networks flowing from key crew bases," Southwest shared.

The airline will address that in a number of ways.

"We are increasing available equipment to manage the effects of winter weather," Southwest posted.

The airline has also increased staffing levels, invested in its scheduling technology, and has changed a number of processes.