HYGO News Southwest's Holiday Meltdown: Jean-Pierre Says the Airline 'Failed Its Customers — Point Blank' (January 3, 2023)
Southwest Airlines had just stranded travelers across the country over Christmas, and the White House wanted everyone to know whose fault it was. “Look, Southwest Airlines failed its customers — point blank. The Department of Transportation will hold them accountable to their commitments to make their customers whole,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Jan. 3, 2023, according to the official White House transcript [1].
The first question came from a reporter a colleague called Tam: “Just a tiny holiday catch-up — or maybe not tiny at all, because it was a giant meltdown. Does the administration have any thoughts about the Southwest Airlines meltdown? Are you guys satisfied with the performance of the airline?” [1]
She said the storm was no excuse. “While every major airlines face challenges from a pre-Christmas storm that wrecked — that wreaked havoc on the aviation system, all major airlines except for one — which is Southwest, clearly — were able to recover quickly,” Jean-Pierre said. “So Southwest Airlines acknowledged that all cancellations starting December 24th were ‘controllable.’ In other words, not weather related.” [1]
Jean-Pierre laid out what Southwest owed. “Based on Southwest’s prior commitments to const- — customers, the airline must cover rebooking, hotel rooms, meals, and transportation to and from a hotel. What’s more, Southwest must make their customers whole by paying for coach flights, rental cars, and trains to get people to their final destinations,” she said [1].
“And Southwest must return baggage as quickly as possible and reimburse passengers up to $3,800 in pro- — provable damage under Southwest care. The Transportation Department is watching,” Jean-Pierre said [1].
The video above shows the exchange at the Jan. 3, 2023, briefing. Quotes are from the official White House transcript, the Federal Aviation Administration and FOX 13 [1][2][3].
”What Did the Administration Do Between Those Failures?”
The next reporter pointed out that the White House had said all this before. “After we saw thousands of flights over the summer be canceled and delayed, we heard a very similar sentiment that you just said from Secretary Buttigieg that we have to put more pressure on the airlines; that, you know, he thought that things would get better by the holidays; that you’re pressing the airlines for better service. What did the administration do between those failures and the failures we saw over the holidays to try to make things better?” [1]
“So, since 2020, to your question, our administration has made it a priority to help people get their money back from airline — airline disruptions,” Jean-Pierre answered. The Biden administration took office in January 2021 [1].
“In 2022, DOT issued the largest consumer protection fines against airlines in U.S. history,” she said. “In June, Secretary Buttigieg called a meeting of airline CEOs to address the unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays we saw during the summer, and demanded more realistic scheduling and better customer service.” [1]
Her answer on the holiday travelers ran together. “You heard the President speak about this: making sure that — you know, that customers who were kind of left — left behind, essentially get — get really — get — be — are able to recover in whole,” Jean-Pierre said [1].
”This Mess With Southwest Could Have Been Avoided”
The criticism also came from inside her own party. “Congressman Ro Khanna said that ‘This mess with Southwest could have been avoided.’ And, you know, he questioned why his recommendations to Buttigieg six months ago were not followed. Do you have any response to either of those things?” a reporter asked [1].
“So, look, I — I just laid out what — you know, look, we respect Secretary — pardon me, Congressman Ro Khanna. He is a — he is a friend of the administration. We’ve worked very closely with him,” Jean-Pierre said [1].
“This is, like, unacceptable what we have seen — what we’re seeing from Southwest, specifically,” she said. “This is a serious issue that we take very seriously.” [1]
By the Numbers
- 16,900: flights canceled in the meltdown, per FOX 13 [3].
- 2 million+: passengers stranded between Christmas and New Year’s [3].
- $3,800: the most Jean-Pierre said Southwest must pay for provable damage [1].
- $140 million: the penalty the Transportation Department imposed in December 2023 [3].
- 8 days: from the briefing to the FAA’s nationwide ground stop [2].
What Happened Next
The FAA grounded the country. Eight days later, on Jan. 11, 2023, the problem was the government’s own system. “The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information,” the agency said [2].
A week after that, the FAA explained what went wrong: “A preliminary FAA review of last week’s outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database.” [2]
Southwest paid a record fine. In December 2023, the Transportation Department “issued a record $140 million civil penalty against Southwest Airlines over its 2022 holiday meltdown,” FOX 13 reported. “The penalty is 30 times larger than any in DOT history.” [3]
For Jean-Pierre on the Biden family’s business dealings at the same briefing, see HYGO News’ page on Jan. 3, 2023. For her border answer that day, see the page on the border.