One of Southwest Airlines’ current issues is flight cancellations, which leads to customer dissatisfaction and a line of scheduled flight strikes. During the last several days, the company had to cancel several hundred flights because of poor weather conditions and technological problems with air traffic control. Besides, it was hard to find new flight crews and planes and stabilize the flight flow in a short period. The pandemic has already created multiple organizational and human resource (HR) challenges for companies. Southwest Airlines is not able to hire properly trained employees and replace those who volunteered for buyouts, decided to retire, or took long-term lists. The vaccination mandate creates additional problems because not all people find it necessary to support this idea and question its legitimacy. As a result, many disappointed passengers postponed their planned travels or addressed other companies. Southwest Airlines offered its regrets to all clients but lost several percent in its share price.
Considering the impossibility of predicting all the outcomes of the pandemic crisis and vaccination obligation, a plan to solve the issues and avoid the same problem in the future is rather weak. First, Southwest Airlines has to improve the work of its HR department and speed up training courses for new employees. It is high time to examine all resumes and pay attention to past applicants and the reasons for their inappropriateness. Many organizations continue implementing referral programs for employees to invite their friends and talented people. Second, communication with customers must be recovered, and people should see that the company does not only regret but tries to solve their problems as soon as possible. A final step in this plan is to promote diversity in a team and cooperate with people who have varied backgrounds and belong to different ethnic and age groups. These decisions could help Southwest Airlines make fast and unique solutions and restore its corporate image.