touched off a fiery controversy over race after a 2018 incident in which two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia store after one asked to use the restroom without placing an order while waiting for another guest to arrive. “A pretty significant one - probably the biggest you’ll ever see,” he said. Southwest cancellations bring four strangers together.ĭavis, now a senior vice president of strategy and investment at Cox Enterprises, said the airline will also likely offer customers a generous travel voucher or discount. Southwest has pledged to honor “reasonable requests” for reimbursement from customers who incurred lodging, meal and alternate transportation costs after their flights were delayed or canceled.Ĭalifornia Southwest canceled their flights. “They’re still angry, but they got some goodies out of it.” “People tend to move on once they’re made whole in some way,” he said. But that rarely happens without clear wrongdoing by an individual. “The board is responsible for making sure that reputation is as good as it can be and that there are crisis management plans even for the unthinkable.”Ĭorporate meltdowns that capture the public’s attention often fuel speculation about a company’s possible demise, Dezenhall said.

The board has to worry,” said Davia Temin, founder of New York-based crisis consultancy Temin & Co. And although industry watchers say the incident is unlikely to put Southwest’s leaders in jeopardy, it will fuel plenty of scrutiny. Internally, such a crisis can be all-consuming for a company. Thousands of travelers have been stranded at airports or stuck on hold trying to rebook flights as a massive storm snarled travel in the U.S. “That’s given the industry a certain level of confidence that they can get away with more than other industries, and they’re right,” said Eric Dezenhall, chief executive of crisis-management advisory Dezenhall Resources.īusiness Flight canceled? Experts share some advice about what to do That makes it harder for customers to shun a carrier over shoddy service. Working in the industry’s favor is a paucity of alternatives to long-distance travel in the U.S. Analysts have estimated the crisis may cut fourth-quarter profit by up to 5%. Shares of Southwest began rebounding Thursday but were still down more than 9% for the week. “This time next year, just as many people who were going to fly on Southwest will again,” he said. Rowe Price Group Inc., which is a long-term airline investor and currently Southwest’s fourth-largest shareholder. Softness in bookings may last “until the half life of the anger is over and people are making spring-break plans,” said Andrew Davis, a former transportation analyst with T. Southwest Airlines, like so many American companies, spent money on dividends and stock buybacks instead of technology and infrastructure. Business Column: Southwest’s meltdown was born in America’s cheapskate corporate culture

Southwest airlines strike 2022