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Andrew Watterson
Chief Operating Officer at Southwest Airlines
Andrew Watterson is an accomplished executive known for achieving outstanding results in various functions, locations, and business structures. With a rich educational background, including an MBA in Operations Management from Vanderbilt University and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis, Andrew has honed his skills to excel in his field. His career journey includes prominent roles at Southwest Airlines, where he served as Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, and in various senior management positions. Additionally, Andrew has contributed to organizations like THE WINGS CLUB FOUNDATION INC and held pivotal roles at Hawaiian Airlines, Oliver Wyman, Ernst & Young Management Consulting, Pepsi-Cola, and the US Army. His diverse experience spans through network planning, revenue management, operations, consulting, and military service.
Highlights
Great trip with Sergio Hurtado to visit Bradley Baker and Team at Southwest Airlines International Operations at Houston Hobby.
I’m so proud of our People every single day. On the heels of the kickoff of the Summer 2023 travel season, I’m sharing a note I just sent to my nearly 70,000 Cohearts here at Southwest.
If you were working, traveling, or even watching from the sidelines during some earned time off this holiday weekend, it likely felt to you like a busy and smooth time period for the airline. Let me share a first look at the data with a huge thanks to all the teams that prepared and executed on our operational plan for the first big weekend of this summer travel season! · Your Hospitality and hard work served more than 2 million holiday weekend travelers, and the airline completed more than 99% of our schedule of 15,000+ flights. Bolstered by great weather across most of the system, our Customers’ quality of experience also was high with outstanding ontime performance. · This was our first Memorial Day with Network Planning and Network Operations unified into one group, offering great alignment on the execution of our daily operation with our commercial capacity plan. · In the NOC, there’s a summer preparedness forum discussion ongoing that involves functional experts and Leaders to collaborate on deploying our resources and navigating expected challenges like weather, fluctuations in staffing, etc. · Speaking of staffing, you should already be feeling the support of the more than 5,700 new Employees who have joined Southwest between January and April of this year. With many already through their training and on the frontline, we have 15% more Employees this summer versus last summer, with a schedule of 7% more flights this summer versus last. This ample staffing has allowed us to recalibrate schedules to support the operation when and where it’s most needed, including giving some Stations more support this summer. This is just the first lap of a marathon of summer travel ahead but it’s an effort and performance certainly worthy of recognizing and celebrating. Congratulations and thank you, all!
