Southwest Airlines, which caused the air crisis around the Christmas holidays last year in the United States, was found to have lost more than 1 trillion won of our money.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the New York Times (NYT) on the 6th (local time), Southwest operated more than 16,700 flights from the 21st to the 31st of last month through the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcement on the same day. Said it was cancelled.
Southwest said it expects to post a net loss in the fourth quarter as its pre-tax profit will decrease by between $725 million and $825 million (about 920 billion to 1.5 trillion won) in the fourth quarter due to mass cancellations.
Prior to the airline crisis, Southwest had been optimistic about making a net profit in the fourth quarter.
Sales are expected to decrease by 400 to 425 million dollars (approximately 510 to 540 billion won).
Southwest spent a lot of money providing airfare refunds, hotels, alternative transportation and mileage compensation to customers who missed flights due to flight cancellations.
A winter storm that started in the Midwest just before Christmas paralyzed air traffic in places due to severe cold, heavy snow, and strong winds. Most of them normalized operations within a few days, but Southwest canceled two-thirds of all scheduled flights by the middle of last week. It caused serious setbacks.
Southwest's outdated crew deployment system has been blamed for exacerbating the situation, prompting calls to invest more in modernizing the system.
(Photo = AP, Yonhap News)