Southwest Airlines has committed to undertaking a detailed review of the meltdown that left thousands of travellers stranded across the US during the year-end rush.

The airline cancelled around 16,000 flights after a winter storm hit the country late last month.

It now promises to initiate additional measures and investments for avoiding such situations in the future.

In a video address posted on its website, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said: “Our leadership team is focused on a thorough review of the disruption with all the needed resources involved, and I expect that work to be completed swiftly.

“We’ve already taken immediate actions to mitigate the risk of this ever happening again, and the review work will inform additional actions and investment as well.

“We’ve asked our unions to participate in this review effort as well, and likewise we are in regular communication with our board of directors.”

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Despite issuing apologies, the carrier drew criticism from different parties, including affected passengers and union leaders.

Southwest Airlines pilots association vice-president Tom Nekouei told Reuters that he, along with other union leaders, joined Jordan on a conference call on Monday to talk about the chaos.

During the discussion, Jordan informed the attendees that the airline is yet to outline a remedial plan to get itself out of such situations in the future, stated Nekouei.

Nekouei was quoted by the agency as saying: “They don’t know what it is that they’re going do in terms of corrective action because they haven’t sat down and run the post-mortem on it.”

According to Nekouei, pilot unions calculate that flight cancellations could result in up to $1bn in revenue loss.

Last month, the US Government called for an investigation of Southwest Airlines to identify the issues that were restricting the carrier’s recovery from the winter storm impact.