Should you worry about another airline meltdown this year? Here's what to know about holiday travel

18.12.2023 - 17:33 / thepointsguy.com / Andrew Watterson / Bob Jordan

With holiday travel coming up, travelers may be thinking back to last year, when a spate of severe winter storms grounded flights across the country just around Christmas, and an operational meltdown at Southwest Airlines dragged on for nearly a week after.

Given last year's mess, many are likely wondering whether their travel plans could go off the rails again this year, whether because of a fresh round of storms or any of the other issues plaguing air travel, such as the ongoing air traffic controller shortage.

Want more aviation news? Sign up for TPG's free biweekly Aviation newsletter.

Fortunately, things seem to be in a better place this year. Even so, airlines are always vulnerable to bad weather, and the right storm at the right time can still cause severe disruption of holiday travel. A key is whether or not airlines are able to recover from disruptions quickly.

During Southwest's 2022 holiday meltdown, one of the biggest issues came in the days following the initial storm: The department that manages pilots' and flight attendants' schedules became overwhelmed. Pilots and flight attendants — left stranded out of position due to delayed and canceled flights — could not reach crew scheduling for hours to be reassigned to a different flight.

In the year since, the airline invested in new tools for crew scheduling, chief operating officer Andrew Watterson previously told TPG.

The airline has upgraded old software and added new programs that help the schedulers manage more displaced crew members at a time without being inundated. It makes it easier to reassign crew members to new flights automatically and offer different options when something goes wrong — for instance, instead of rescheduling a flight attendant on a new flight from their current location, working to get that crew member to somewhere that has a greater need for available flight crews.

The updates together solve last year's issues of the crew scheduling system not being "able to technically handle these large-scale problems," CEO Bob Jordan previously told TPG.

Meanwhile, the airline has addressed other issues that contributed to the 2022 mess.

Flight delayed or canceled? Here are the best credit cards with trip delay reimbursement

Despite the storm being forecast several days ahead of time, the airline could not muster enough de-icing staff and equipment to keep planes moving, particularly in its focus city of Denver. Noting the wintry conditions during the holidays, some employees called out sick, marginally contributing to an already significant staffing challenge.

Over the past year, Southwest says it has hired and trained more employees who can handle de-icing duties during bad weather and significantly expanded its related