Southwest Airlines Hires Consultant To Ward Off Future Holiday Anomalies

Southwest Airlines Co LUV contacted consulting firm Oliver Wyman to boost a crew scheduling system after its holiday crisis, CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview.
The airline had to cancel over 16,700 flights from December 21 - December 31 as it struggled to recover from a severe winter storm versus its rivals, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Southwest has said the disruption would hit its pretax earnings by $725 million - $825 million.
Also Read: Southwest's Holiday Crisis Could Cost It Up To First Nine Months Of FY22 Earnings, Analysts Say
Oliver Wyman will help the airline to analyze the anomaly and reset priorities.
Southwest's board has also formed its operations review committee to examine the disruption.
The airline collaborated with General Electric Co GE on a new version of a crew scheduling system, SkySolver, to tackle such anomalies in the future.
Southwest is about 90% finished processing refunds of flights.
The airline also awarded 25,000 frequent flier points to nearly two million people.
Southwest held $13.7 billion in cash and equivalents as of September 30.
Price Action: LUV shares closed higher by 2.78% at $36.97 on Thursday.
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