Southwest Reports $723M Profit in 2022 Despite Losing $800M Due to Holiday Crisis

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan tried to reassure investors during Thursday’s earnings report that the Dallas-based airline is making the adjustments needed to ensure the December crash never happens again.

Southwest posted a net loss of $220 million in the fourth quarter after 16,700 flight cancellations cost the airline $800 million.

The airline posted a profit of $723 million for 2022.

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Southwest executives said that after a slow start to the year, bookings for March are now back in line with pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

These bookings are in part due to customers cashing in the reward points the airline has issued to offset all canceled flights.

Although the airline hired a third party to review exactly what went wrong and what the airline needed to do differently, Jordan took responsibility for the accident and apologized again.

“This was a major event, we disrupted thousands and thousands of customers at a critical time and really made a mess for employees and customers,” he said. “I can’t apologize enough for this and I admit it. We will do our best to ensure that we don’t have such an event again.”

While work groups complained that Southwest Airlines crews were overworked, airline executives said today that the December event had nothing to do with recruiting.

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Executives said Southwest is fully staffed, even exceeding its 2022 hiring targets, and the airline still has no hiring issues.

The Department of Transportation is investigating Southwest Airlines to see if the airline exceeds scheduled flights over the holidays.

Southwest has dismissed any allegations of customer fraud.

DOT had previously warned Southwest to expedite refunds and refunds to affected passengers.

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Southwest claims to have fulfilled nearly all customer requests.

Jordan said a third-party analysis of what exactly went wrong and what the airline needs to do differently is expected within weeks.

An update to the planning software is already well under way.