In the aftermath of Southwest Airlines’ December meltdown, company executives acknowledged that their compensation packages were due to be cut as part of the carrier’s response.
Answering questions from reporters following hours of testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday, Southwest chief operating officer Andrew Watterson said that executive bonuses were set to be reduced this year.
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson acknowledged the plan in a statement to USA TODAY, but said full details about the reductions have not yet been released.
“Each year, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors approves an annual company scorecard upon which a year-end assessment is taken to determine short-term bonus pay, which is awarded in cash to qualifying Employees. The scorecard looks at operational excellence metrics, progress on major initiatives, financial performance and customer experience metrics,” the statement said. “Based on the 2022 scorecard results, which were impacted by the events in December, qualifying employees will see payout reductions in the short-term incentive pay cash bonuses soon to be awarded based on company performance.”
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What happened to Southwest?
It started as a weather issue, but schedule changes and other factors quickly overwhelmed the airline’s backend technology and resulted in Southwest canceling around 16,700 flights in the last 10 days of December.
A large number of passengers were left stranded for days as the airline worked on regrouping and getting its schedule back in order.
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In a hearing that focused largely on the meltdown by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee earlier this month, Watterson pledged that the airline was refunding passengers for expenses they incurred as a result of the airline’s failures, and swore that the company was making necessary investments and upgrades to prevent a similar issue from happening again.Â
How Southwest is compensating affected passengers
The airline has pledged to provide refunds to passengers affected by the incident, and also to reimburse them for “reasonable” expenses like flights on other airlines, hotels, rental cars and meals that they had to pay for out of pocket as a result.
In his testimony, Watterson said that “just a small percentage” of reimbursements remained to be paid.
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Southwest also offered 25,000 Rapid Rewards points to affected travelers.
The airline appears to have taken down the special webpage to file new claims related to the December incident.
Story Credit: usatoday.com