Southwest starts on reputation repair after cancellations

DALLAS (AP) — With its flights running on a roughly normal schedule, Southwest Airlines is now turning its attention to repairing its damaged reputation after it canceled 15,000 flights around Christmas and left holiday travelers stranded.

CEO Robert Jordan said Thursday that Southwest has processed about 75% of the refund requests it has received. The airline has also returned most lost bags to their owners, and hired an outside firm to sift through requests for reimbursement of things like hotels and meals that stranded passengers paid out of their own pockets, he said.

The massive disruptions began Dec. 22 with a winter storm, and snowballed when Southwest’s ancient crew-scheduling technology was overwhelmed, leaving crews and planes out of position to operate flights. It took the airline eight days to recover.

Jordan said in a brief interview that Southwest is still studying what went wrong, and he doesn’t want to make changes in technology until that review is done. He expressed optimism but offered few specifics about avoiding a repeat meltdown.

Southwest is giving 25,000 frequent-flyer points to customers whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2, and seems to be making progress on refunds, but executives concede it will take many weeks to process the reimbursement requests.

Danielle Zanin is still waiting to hear whether Southwest will cover the $1,995.36 that she spent during a four-day odyssey getting her family of four home to Illinois after their flight was canceled in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Even if she eventually gets the money, it may not be enough for her to try Southwest again.

“It would take a lot for the airline to prove to me that they can fix whatever technology they use to get flight crews and planes where...