Southwest Airlines has converted 40 firm orders for the Boeing 737-7 to the slightly larger 737-8, as Boeing’s timeline for certifying the smallest MAX family variant continues to slip.
A total of 13 routes are being launched from the secondary airports in Chicago and Houston by Frontier, most of which are served by rival Southwest Airlines.
Recent high-profile meltdowns were mainly caused by a reluctance of workers to pick up overtime shifts during periods of high stress such as bad weather events and IT system failures, the CEOs said.
Southwest Airlines remains in the midst of a hiring push to alleviate operational challenges it encountered during the third quarter, but the airline is also turning attention to building up network depth over the next year to recover more quickly from irregular operations.
Southwest Airlines and United Airlines announced updated employee vaccination policies, as U.S. carriers experiment with carrots and sticks to incentivize greater vaccine uptake among their workers.
Southwest Airlines President Tom Nealon has retired from leading the company just a few months after being passed over to replace outgoing CEO Gary Kelly.