Southwest Promises Refunds as Airline Sees ‘Certain’ Financial Impact
WASHINGTON—Southwest Airlines promised to reimburse passengers for expenses such as hotels and car rentals in addition to refunding tickets after it canceled thousands of flights due to a massive winter storm and said there would be a still-undetermined hit to its earnings.
“There’ll certainly be an impact to the fourth quarter,” Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green told reporters on a call on Thursday. “We’re … working through all the financial elements of this. We’ll share that information when we have all that compiled and are ready to do that.”
Some analysts estimate the meltdown could shave as much as 9 percent off Southwest’s fourth-quarter earnings….