Skift Take
Southwest Airlines’ Robert Jordan is mostly thrilled about his brand-new task but likewise “20 percent frightened.” And for excellent reason, he takes the helm as the carrier navigates a working with crunch in the middle of the recovery from the worst crisis in its history.
Edward Russell
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Incoming Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan was just preparing to pick up his food when he went through the drive through at a Dallas-area Whataburger recently. However stapled to his food bag was also a task application– a sign of the entry-level working with challenges that face company across the U.S.
“The restrictions have always been can we get airplane, can we get centers, [and] can we get gates,” he stated. “I’ve never ever experienced a time when the restraint is ‘can we get employees?'”
Staffing concerns are hitting Southwest where it injures: operations. In August, the airline cut more than 5,000 flights from its schedule in September and October citing staffing-related functional challenges throughout the summer season and the fallout from the Delta variation on travel demand. But even with those reductions, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association may picket at significant airports during the yearend holidays to reveal their dissatisfaction with the provider.
“Stability in our operation depends upon staff,” said Jordan at the online forum.
Southwest prepares to work with 5,000 extra workers by the end of the year, and another 8,000 in 2022. Open positions are for tasks throughout the provider but mostly in frontline positions.
While staffing is a leading issue for Jordan as he prepares to take the reins at Southwest from CEO Gary Kelly in February, it is simply among many that the inbound chief deals with. For one, the airline industry continues to slowly emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and the travel slowdown. Asked about the healing, Jordan said that he sees 2022 as another “transition” year in the healing. He is positive that service tourists will return– his predecessor has said this might take 5-10 years– but does not expect this to occur over night.
“I’m a positive guy,” stated Jordan. “I’m extremely optimistic that we’re going to get the travel back.”
U.S. domestic passenger numbers were at approximately 79 percent of 2019 levels throughout the week ending September 21, according to data from industry trade group Airline companies for America (A4A). That’s below a peak in July when numbers were nearly back to where they were 2 years earlier.
Looking forward, Southwest sees “normal” reservation patterns for the yearend vacations, stated Jordan. U.S. airline companies are broadly optimistic for a travel increase around Thanksgiving and Christmas after revising back their fall outlooks.
Jordan also deals with the challenges of managing all of Southwest’s network growth during the crisis. The carrier added a record 18 new destinations– ranging from Chicago O’Hare to Miami and Steamboat Springs, Colo.– to its map in the last year-and-a-half, and considerably boosted its existence in Hawaii. It did this by decreasing the number of flights– or depth of service– to a number of its existing destinations when organization travel evaporated.
Southwest prepares to develop back that depth in 2022 with the delivery of 114 new Boeing 737s. Those planes will change the 92 aircraft utilized to launch all of the airline’s brand-new markets and then some. Asked if Southwest’s growth will continue, Jordan stated the airline company “might open a couple of” new markets next year.
“I’m 80 percent ecstatic and about 20 percent horrified,” Jordan said of his brand-new job. And, for those wondering, he did not request that Whataburger job.