ending Southwest’s Not-in-the-Air Disaster

On Christmas morning many Americans found their luggage stowed by airline baggage carousels with care. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines, its employees, fans, and investors were filled with hope that St. Kelleher soon would be there.

Or at least the spirit of the airline’s past charismatic leader, Herb Kelleher, and his can-do attitude to overcome the fiasco its out-of-date technology and out-oftouch labor relations strategy had foisted upon Christmas-time travelers.

If Texas had a national airline, it would be Southwest.

Headquartered in Dallas, the historically can-do, inyour-face, and joyous attitude of most who work there has always been recognizably Texan. That’s why many of us were surprised and betrayed by the disastrous week endured by thousands of our in-flight friends. Traditionally, it’s the Grinch who steals Christmas.

This year, it was Southwest Airlines.

All About Texas

Our agency’s clients are mostly reputational, Texas-based brands with major operations outside Texas. Whether they are headquartered in Manhattan or Berlin or Tokyo, they look to us to establish their brands across the state and the Southwest, or to repair brand damage.

Frankly, until now, there was no need for much reputation work at Southwest. We all loved them so and the infectious good humor of the staff made traveling in their inexpensive, sometimes too-tiny seats a minor distraction.

Everyone on board, from the pilots to the staff in blue putting water bottles in the back hatch looked like your cousin Calvin or sister Sue and they acted pretty much that way as we boarded. And we liked that the flight attendants didn’t take a lot of guff from the drunks among us and told outrageous jokes on the intercom almost all the way to Los Angeles, or Seattle, or Buffalo.

Sill, there is no getting around the level of the December disaster this year, nor the responsibility of the airline to make up to so many for stealing Christmas, and I guess New Year’s, from so many travelers.

Just over one year ago, Southwest announced Bob Jordan would replace Gary Kelley as CEO. As the former controller and chief financial officer for Southwest, Kelly had been described by his detractors as an accountant flying an airline. Jordan, a Texas A&M grad with degrees in computer science and experience in financial analysis stepped in just when the turbulence was getting stronger and the headwinds were pushing against the airline industry

THOMAS GRAHAM is the founder of Crosswind Media & Public Relations. Thomas has been privileged to develop strategies for some of the world’s most familiar brands, to direct communications during highest-profile crises and reorganization, and to prepare high-profile senior executives at Fortune 500 companies for media interviews, investor and analyst round table discussions, and presentations before major external and internal meetings.

Take Responsibility Initiate Change Communicate

Following a pandemic the airline faced dramatic decline in revenues, aging technology infrastructure and uncertainty from a traveling public, all of which came to a disastrous head in a scheduling crisis around Christmas time. So I appreciate Jordan’s forthrightness he has faced the press and his customers daily and seems to be quite open about what precisely went wrong … and which parts are completely the airline’s fault. He will bring, in my opinion, a data-driven, results-oriented solution to Southwest’s problems. He will also look back to the airline’s roots and to Kelleher’s people-first and can-do spirit.

He, and what I saw of the beleaguered counter staff in the airports I traveled this week are owning their mistakes and, no doubt, will foot an enormous bill to compensate those who were waylaid on the most important holiday weekends of the year. Southwest will surely face political and regulatory scrutiny in the recounting of the cause some well deserved, some opportunistic overreach.

They’ll Be Back

Their clumsy, “stupid” software will be improved and will be more resilient and reliable; their failed logistics systems from customer service to flight crew coordination will work.

And I guarantee this: The uncensored comedy from the flight attendants on the intercom will have travelers in 2023 in stitches and we will, again, be reluctant to step off the plane when we get where we are going.

by Will Boughton