As passengers attempt dealing with cancelled flights and misplaced luggage, Capt. Casey Murray says the difficulty lies with Southwest’s leaders being gradual to improve firm tech.
DALLAS — After the roped off space in entrance of the Love Field Airport baggage declare workplace stuffed up, luggage started to only pile up alongside a again wall, then in between carousels and finally resting on them.
As some folks picked via the tons of of baggage scattered round, others waited in lengthy strains for an hour or two for assist.
“It’s heartbreaking,” mentioned Jeff Galaska, who tried to fly out of Love Field on Christmas Day.
Galaska says Southwest rebooked him and his spouse on a flight collectively, and his 2-year-old and 6-year-old on a flight by themselves. He hasn’t been in a position to attain Southwest to cancel these preparations. Not serving to issues: Their baggage, stuffed with prescriptions and Christmas presents, is caught in Ohio.
“We’ve not been able to call any line [for] customer service,” Galaska mentioned. “It’s a dial tone. So I’m here looking for my bags right now. I’m disappointed just because it was Christmas. Right? It’s one of the busiest travel times of the year. We’re upset we’re not going to be able to go up and see our family for Christmas.”
Farooq Abraham pushed three massive luggage via baggage declare Tuesday.
“I’m very tired, very frustrated,” he mentioned.
His household’s flight to return from Orlando was cancelled. After spending the night time in a lodge, the connection flight was cancelled as nicely.
“They said you either you go there, we rebook for you, or you just cancel it and rebook from here,” Abraham mentioned.
He rented a automobile and drove 17 hours with a 3-year-old and 6-year-old within the backseat — and no baggage. After leaving at 3 p.m. Monday, his household arrived in Dallas this morning and picked up their luggage from three totally different corners of the luggage declare part.
“Especially during the holiday time… nobody deserved to go through this situation, especially families with kids,” Abraham mentioned. “It was hard, but we dealt with it.”
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association says that the blame for the dysfunction falls not on staffing however moderately outdated expertise requiring pilots and flights attendants to name a dispatch heart.
“It’s a nightmare — it’s worse than we’ve ever seen it,” mentioned Capt. Casey Murray, the affiliation’s president. “We’re staffed appropriately. It’s as soon as one thing happens, some sort of disruption to the processes begin to fail, the IT begins to fail and we find yourself precisely the place we’re at.”
In inside and exterior messaging alike, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan has tried to elucidate the above to an aggravated public and an overworked worker roster.
But Murray says it is a leadership downside, and that the Southwest workers itself is doing all it could possibly to attempt to assist passengers.
“We’ve seen this coming for many years because of the outdated technology, outdated processes, and this is where we end up,” Murray said. “It’s sad and, really, they need to be held to task in Dallas. We’re trying to get people back to where they’re supposed to be so they can start over. It’s going to take another couple days and possibly longer than that to really get the operation where it needs to be.”
The line for the luggage drop and assist desk on the Southwest Airlines counter was additionally measured in hours Tuesday.
Lanita Canavan had time. Her flight to Baltimore was delayed three hours, however her journey group’s connection happening to Albany, New York, had already been cancelled.
“Our goal is to get on the East Coast, and we’ll try to figure it out from there,” she mentioned. “We’re trying to be positive.”
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