Airlines offer staff holiday incentives after operational meltdowns
CNN
Southwest Airlines is the latest carrier to offer new incentives to its employees during the holidays, as airlines gear up to avoid operational delays during a peak travel season.
The company is offering operational employees, such as flight attendants and pilots, who work qualifying shifts between November 15 and January 14 up to 120,000 Rapid Rewards Points from its frequent flyer program. The airline said the number of qualifying shifts varies by work group and was determined by each department's holiday scheduling needs, Southwest confirmed to CNN.
Southwest had a service meltdown in October that left more than 2,000 flights canceled over four days and cost the airline $75 million. The company blamed the snafu on a combination of bad weather and a brief problem with air traffic control in Florida, as well as a lack of available staff to adjust to those problems. It has admitted that service problems caused by short staffing were occurring even before the canceled flights left thousands of angry passengers stranded.
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