Incoming CEO at Southwest
Robert Jordan will inherit a long list of challenges when he becomes the sixth CEO of Southwest Airlines next month.
Among them: A financial hole left by the pandemic ($3 billion loss in 2020), staffing shortages, periods of high numbers of canceled and delayed flights.
Jordan joined Southwest in 1988 and rose through a series of finance and strategy jobs. He oversaw the $1.4 billion acquisition of AirTran Airways in 2011. In June, Southwest announced that Jordan would succeed Gary Kelly, who is retiring as CEO on Feb. 1.
Jordan talked to The Associated Press shortly before Christmas. The comments have been edited for length.
You’ve got your work cut out for you. What are you going to focus on first?
The company is not broken, but I think there are some things that we can do to – I’ve used the word modernize. It’s not like we’re behind, but I do think we need to work on, for example, our operational tools. I don’t know that (employees) have all the tools to manage the complex company that we are.
What else?
I think we have a terrific customer experience. But (I) think about things like, is our Wi-Fi as reliable as it needs to be? I’m not sure that it is. Do we need to think about things like whether power (outlets for passengers) on the aircraft are important? Am I going to drastically change the airline? I don’t think so, but I do think that there are areas that we can improve.
What about bag fees, change fees and your open-seating system? Any changes coming?
No. We’re known for doing things that make sense for our customers. No bag fees, no change fees make perfect sense. It’s very hard for me to imagine that we would go to assigned seating.
You are hiring. How long until you're fully staffed?
We’re making really good progress. It is harder than normal. We get plenty of applications, we just don’t get as many applications for open jobs as we used to. I suspect it takes into the summer to get caught up here.
What will 2022 be like for the airline industry?
I think we all wished that ’21 was the transition year and ’22 was back to normal, and it’s just clear that ’22 is going to continue to be a year of continued transition. It’s going to make predicting the business and the schedule a little choppy.
How will you be different or similar to Gary Kelly?
I think we’re similar when it comes to how we think through problems and process things. We’re both analytical, we’re both data-driven. I probably am faster to want to get to an answer and need to probably focus on collaboration, where Gary is highly collaborative. Gary is a people person, I’m probably even more of a people person. I’d spend the whole day wandering the halls, talking to people or being in the stations.