The unprecedented mass of vacationers taking to the skies might need to deal with one other hiccup of their flight experiences—exploding soda cans.
On Southwest Airways, no less than 20 flight attendants have been injured this summer time by carbonated drinks that exploded once they tried to open them, a phenomenon the airline is attributing to record-breaking summer time warmth, in keeping with the Washington Publish.
To date, no studies of passengers being injured from the soda cans have emerged, the Publish famous. Whereas the airline has skilled comparable incidents up to now, this summer time has seen a rise, it added.
Southwest didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark however informed the Publish, “We are aware of the issue and have begun taking steps to attempt to mitigate it.”
Except for exploding cans, many vacationers are usually not having fun with their flying experiences. Complaints about air journey rose to just about 100,000 in 2023, the best degree for the reason that pandemic. And on Friday, a defective software program replace from the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike prompted mass outages for corporations counting on the providers, grounding flights throughout the globe.
Because the airline’s title would counsel, Southwest has a big presence in cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, and Las Vegas, a lot of which have been experiencing record-breaking temperatures this summer time attributable to local weather change. In Vegas, June 20 tied the most well liked day Sin Metropolis has ever recorded, reaching 117 levels. At Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport, 14 totally different days final month introduced temperatures above 110 levels.
Southwest could also be extra inclined to the acute warmth than different carriers. As a result of it doesn’t serve perishable meals on flights, soda cans are transported in unrefrigerated vans, which get fairly scorching when temperatures are reaching into the triple digits.
To deal with the problem, Southwest has provide you with plenty of security measures to mitigate the chance of detonating gentle drinks, in keeping with CBS. Floor crews have been instructed to measure the temperature of vans—and cans—earlier than the drinks are loaded into planes, and flight attendants have been informed to not open cans that seem bodily deformed. The airline can be testing some refrigerated vans in Las Vegas. In an inside electronic mail obtained by CBS, the corporate mentioned “viable solutions to bursting hot cans is our top priority.”
Southwest could also be coping with extra severe points than exploding soda cans. The finances airline just lately minimize its income outlook for the second quarter of this yr, citing “complexities in adapting its revenue management to current booking patterns in this dynamic environment.”
David Neeleman, founding father of Breeze airways in addition to a number of different carriers, mentioned at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech convention this week that Southwest’s struggles could also be a results of customers being extra keen to spend massive at its rivals.
“One of the reasons Southwest is kind of struggling today is that this kind of scramble for seats was cool back in the ‘70s and ‘80s and even the ‘90s, but today when Delta is so much better, when United is so much better, people don’t want to fight for a seat,” he mentioned.
