Southwest Airlines announced a number of promotions on January 9. Adam Decaire will be promoted to senior vice president of network planning and network operations control, a move the carrier said would create "a tighter feedback loop between schedule design and schedule execution while adding resiliency and reliability to the network".
Decaire's promotion was one of five announced by the carrier, which cancelled almost 17,000 flights in late December as storms hit swathes of the US.
Also moving is Tony Roach, who is being promoted from vice president customer experience and engagement to senior vice president marketing and customer experience.
Whitney Eichinger has been promoted from vice president culture and engagement to senior vice president culture and communications, while Jeff Novota is promoted from associate general counsel to vice president legal-corporate and transactions, where he is to provide counsel on corporate governance, securities, compliance, transactional, and general corporate matte
Dave Harvey was promoted from vice president business to vice president and chief sales officer, with his teams responsible for all aspects of business-to-business selling and service for accounts including global, national, federal/state, higher education, mid-market, small business, and meetings/events travel.
“The strength of Southwest Airlines is and always has been our people, and I am incredibly proud to have such talented and dedicated leaders who have a passion to serve our Employees and our customers,” said Southwest Airlines president and chief executive Bob Jordan.
Analysts at Bank of America said they came away from discussions with Southwest with the view that "all options are on the table to ensure the same massive wave of disruptions do not occur again".
The bigger near-term risk, the bank said, was whether the airline would attempt to stimulate demand with lower fares if customers appeared to drift to other airlines.