back to article Southwest promotes internal IT executive to CIO in wake of that Christmas meltdown

Heads keep rolling upward at Southwest Airlines, as the biz announced that its VP of Technology was being promoted into the now-vacant Chief Information Officer position. Lauren Woods, who has been at Southwest since 2010, will succeed retiring CIO Kathleen Merrill in the role, but don't go thinking this is in response to …

  1. Someone Else Silver badge

    The Peter Principle -- Exhibit A

    It appears that the Peter Principle is a core value at Southwest.

    I suppose its is better than them hiring those ex-airline execs that are hellbent of destroying Amtrak. But only a little.

  2. Woodnag

    She's got a lot of work to do?

    Meaningless unless given budget.

  3. jake Silver badge

    Well, now.

    Wasn't that predictable.

    1. GuldenNL

      Re: Well, now.

      If you know the current Southwest regime, it is.

  4. Marty McFly Silver badge
    FAIL

    It is not that easy

    SWA's problem in late December was multi-faceted. Yes, a large part was the flight management software crumbling under the load of unexpected issues - weather, baggage handlers, etc.

    The underlying issue is SWA's business model which wants those jets in the air as much as possible. That leaves little room in the scheduling for unexpected problems. Then the snowball starts to grow as crews time-out, leaving aircraft stranded, resulting in more cancelations elsewhere in the system. Mix in SWA does not have mutual assistance contracts in place with other airlines & no contracts with hotels for crews to stay at, and eventually the whole thing fell over.

    Yes, the outdated software is a problem. But it is not the only thing to blame.

    1. EarthDog

      Re: It is not that easy

      it's a basic principle in Operations Research to never fill your queue over 75% . this is true not only in business capacity but in networking e.g. ethernet. But of course a network is a network.

  5. Moni

    Southwest company, now said they going to better service, also they said they going to take care all the passengers the suffering, when they have all the cancelations and lost the luggage for days, I write a letter I have case number I call until today they didn't resolve my case I didn't hear from Southwest company any more I don't know if there more people with the same problem I still waiting for a response from them.

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