Southwest Air Memos Showed Growing Alarm on Eve of Epic Winter Storm

As a winter storm bore down on a broad swath of the US, a staffing crisis was brewing for Southwest Airlines Co. in Denver. 

Chris Johnson, the carrier’s vice president of ground operations, declared a “state of operational emergency” at the airport after “an unusually high number” of employee absences, according to a Dec. 21 message to ramp workers seen by Bloomberg News.