New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has sent a letter to the chief executive at Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) requesting information on how the carrier will prevent a repeat of the operational collapse that stranded thousands of passengers over last month”™s holiday season.
According to a Reuters report, DiNapoli sent his letter because his office is responsible for the state’s pension system, which held 1.35 million shares of Southwest as of the end of Q1 2022. In his letter to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, DiNapoli said the havoc from last month that canceled more than 16,000 flights between Dec. 22 and Dec. 31 was of “considerable” concern to investors.
“The management of these basic business operations are the heart of a company’s ability to provide a return to shareholders,” DiNapoli wrote in the letter, which was reported on by Reuters.
The cancelations, which stranded thousands of passengers, is estimated to have cost the airline between $725 million and $825 million. DiNapoli added that he want to see Southwest”™s plan to “correct these failures – not just in the immediate term, but for the coming years.”
