Southwest reports near quarter-billion-dollar loss after Christmas flights debacle

Southwest Airlines reported a fourth quarter (Q4 2022) net loss of US $220 million or US $0.37 loss per diluted share and said it expects worse for the first quarter of 2023. The Q4 2022 loss was widely seen as unsurprising after the carrier cancelled almost 17,000 flights in late December as its IT systems failed to cope with the impact of winter storms on scheduling updates. The cancellations took the gloss off record fourth quarter and full year operating revenues of US $6.2bn and $23.8bn, respectively, with Bob Jordan, president and chief executive, saying “operational disruptions in late December,