Swa - etops certification

[Lear70]

The problem, more likely, is the lack of domestic alternate airports.

This ^^^^

Had one of the bigwigs on the jumpseat last week and this is the biggest sticking point along with the F/A issue for SJU ops.

You can do SJU without going extended overwater, island hopping, but for a good stretch in there between Miami and SJU there's NO U.S. soil for an emergency divert and they have to have approval for those international alternates from MYNN all the way down the Turks & Caicos, etc.

You can always head east if you get to SJU and some storm has moved in off the mountains and go to STX for a U.S. alternate, but west of SJU the only U.S. soil is 90 minutes back to MIA or FLL.

The last of that is being put in place and if the F/A's sign off on this side letter, SJU ops will be going away in phases starting in Jan/Feb and the last going away in Sep. That combined with losing EYW in November is why the MCO draw-down is the way it is. Take away SJU and there are almost NO EMO's out of MCO and a good 25% or so of the BWI flights go away, too which is where most of our MCO departures head out to with originating flight crews starting their trips.

That's why the draw-down looks the way it does for MCO and why it was delayed from this year to next year - delay in SWA operating SJU and, to a much lesser extent, EYW.

 

[CiFIknow]

Call me kooky, but how long does it take for SWA to get ETOPS?? At Atlas we added a new type to our fleet and were ETOPS within a couple months. Even Sun Country has it. Seems like SWA has been working on this for years and yet doesn't have it... Just wondering.

 

[scoreboardII]

I think if you look behind the curtain you see ETOPs takes about 12-18 months to run through the FAA. Biggest wicket is Maintenance.

 

[SKC]

Call me kooky, but how long does it take for SWA to get ETOPS?? At Atlas we added a new type to our fleet and were ETOPS within a couple months. Even Sun Country has it. Seems like SWA has been working on this for years and yet doesn't have it... Just wondering.

Uh, you didn't get ETOPS cert within a couple of months, unless you already had ETOPS for another type. Even an accelerated certification program takes at least 12 months.

SWA only began the process within the past 12 months.