EASY ENOUGH:

"The holiday meltdown has been blamed on weather that had been forecast five days prior, but this problem began many years ago when the complexity of our [computer] network outgrew its ability to withstand meteorological and technological disruptions," said the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. It called for new crew scheduling software and other communications tools.

Lyn Montgomery, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents Southwest's flight attendants, said the meltdown was the "operational failure of all failures" and caused by management's  "decision to continue to expand and grow without the technology needed to handle it."

In short, Southwest's own employees say the airline badly needs to overhaul its computer network. Notably, neither union highlighted any other issue. If there had been some other action by management that caused its planes and crews alike to be unnecessarily grounded, the unions wouldn't have been shy in pointing it out.

Tweet   @brothersjudd