(Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co said on Friday it expects to report a net loss in the fourth quarter after a technological meltdown due to a winter storm forced the U.S. carrier to cancel thousands of flights around Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The largest U.S. domestic carrier, which typically has an aggressive schedule that connects vast swathes of the country, scrapped more than 13,000 flights from Dec. 24 to Dec 31, according to airline-tracking website FlightAware.
The Dallas-based airline relies on a point-to-point service instead of operating out of large hubs that made it difficult for crews to reassemble disrupting operations.
(Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
