The statements from employees indicate that SWA does _not_ know where flight crews are at every moment. When a flight is cancelled the downstream information is not updated accordingly. Crew have to call a phone line and speak to another human to update their information and assignments. With the large scale cancellations due to weather, that system was overloaded and fully collapsed. SWA had no choice but to cancel the majority of their flights while they sort out where the crews are at and how to schedule them next. The debacle is a direct result of lack of investment in modern software systems.
heh i wonder if they've asked everyone to use their phones to share their location with their immediate supervisor. Then someone setup a spreadsheet in sharepoint and the supervisors are going at it.
