Southwest COO on the Year Ahead and Visiting PIT
Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson talks with Blue Sky News at the annual Cranky Network Awards in Phoenix
By Bob Kerlik
Published February 23, 2026
Read Time: 2 mins
Editor’s Note: This was a Q&A with Southwest’s Andrew Watterson and PIT’s Blue Sky News at the annual Cranky Network Awards, an aviation industry event held in Phoenix last week.
Q: Why do you like to come to the Cranky Flier Awards every year?
A: I like to talk shop. Everyone here is an AvGeek and so we get to talk about airplanes and airport codes and service and just talk shop. I love that very much.
Q: Southwest obviously went through a lot of change in the past year. What do you want travelers to know?
A: Southwest is who we always were, which is a carrier focused on having a very high-quality service, how we deliver our product – we’ve always been known for our people – good reliability. So those things are there. We’ve modified the product we have so that it’s more in tune with current customer needs. We’ve also restored our reliability back to the top of the industry like we were in the good old days – so very high reliability, very high service and a product people demand which is a very high-quality common product.
Andrew Watterson, Chief Operating Officer, Southwest Airlines. (Courtesy of Southwest Airlines)
Q: What’s your outlook for Southwest in 2026?
A: With Southwest for 2026 we are in a very good position because of the changes we just executed. We see them resonating well with customers. We’re operating at a very high level and so I think it’s a very good outlook for the year.
Q: When are you going to come see the new terminal in Pittsburgh?
A: I don’t know but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been following it online and I was crushed that I couldn’t come to your black-tie gala. I had a personal conflict that was long-standing so I couldn’t come.… I really wanted to come because I really wanted to see the tunnel. I love the high ceilings, but the tunnel is what I really wanted to see.
Q: Southwest continues to be the market leader in Pittsburgh by a few percentage points ahead of American in terms of passenger traffic. How do you see growth opportunities at PIT this year?
A: We’ve had modest growth in the last couple years as a company. Essentially when you’re not earning a good return on your capital you should have modest growth, and so we have to earn our right to grow. With our guide we gave for the year, our profits have returned – that is your prerequisite for growing again. We’ll make sure we deliver upon that. If we deliver upon that we’ll look forward to the future.
