Promotions, not job cuts, follow Southwest’s holiday chaos

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines is making a number of executive promotions, but nobody is getting fired after thousands of flights were canceled in late December. The airline announced five executive promotions on Monday, none involving the highest-ranking jobs at the airline. Southwest says the shuffling will improve its operation by bringing schedule design and schedule execution closer together. A spokesman says no one is getting demoted or left the company in connection with the moves. Southwest canceled more than 16,700 flights over the last 10 days of December. The meltdown started with a winter storm and got worse when Southwest’s crew-rescheduling technology broke down under the strain of re-assigning thousands of pilots and flight attendants.