Who is Southwest Airlines CEO? Bob Jordan says flights to face cancellations as airline recovers
DALLAS, TEXAS: The travel chaos caused by last week's winter weather has continued into this week, troubling Southwest Airlines, its CEO Bob Jordan, airline staff, and most importantly, its irate customers with massive troubles. On December 26, about 8,200 flights had been delayed and more than 3,900 flights into or out of the US had already been canceled. A huge portion of those is accounted for by Southwest Airlines.
None of the other US airlines have significantly reduced their schedules or canceled as many flights as Southwest. According to FlightAware, as of 10.10 pm on December 26, the Dallas-based airline had canceled 71% of its flights or a little over 2,900 in total. Within a half-hour, the airline abruptly canceled about 300 flights. As of 10.50 pm on December 26, more than 2,400 of those flights had already been canceled. This number includes the majority of the more than 2,600 flight cancellations announced by all US airlines on December 27. Prior to the meltdown on Monday, December 26, Jordan informed staff on Christmas Eve that there are "a lot of issues in the operation right now."
RELATED ARTICLES
USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.
— TransportationGov (@USDOT) December 27, 2022
An aviation source from the Southwest Airlines staff gave a transcript of the message to CNN in which Jordan addressed the staff by saying, "Part of what we're suffering is a lack of tools. We've talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that." According to Jordan, the company will run slightly more than a third of its scheduled hours in the following days to allow for crews to enter the scene. Jordan was reported saying that the shortened schedule could be prolonged. "We had a tough day today. In all likelihood we'll have another tough day tomorrow as we work our way out of this," as per The Wall Street Journal.
Who is Rob Jordan?
Beginning on February 1, 2022, Robert Jordan has served as Southwest Airlines CEO. On June 23, 2021, it was revealed that he would take over as the company's sixth CEO in February 2022, succeeding Gary C Kelly. He was formerly Southwest Airlines' Executive Vice President of Corporate Services. Jordan earned a Computer Science degree from Texas A&M University. He was employed by Hewlett-Packard as a programmer and financial analyst prior to joining Southwest Airlines in 1988. He has held a variety of positions at Southwest, most notably as CEO of AirTran Airways following Southwest's acquisition of the carrier in 2011.
