SWA ontime performance #'s being questioned by DOT

[GuppyWN]

they won't stretch the block time...... they'll just increase the turn times. When I got hired it was 10 minutes. Now it's no uncommon to see a 35 minute scheduled turn.

Gup

 

[AA717driver]

My daughter flies home on SWA a lot and I've noticed they run late many of those times. When I commuted home through MDW last month, there were tons of late flights on the board with no real wx events anywhere.

SWA is a big airline now. They fly to big, congested airports. It's not the same SWA that used to load a -200 using the front airstairs while deplaning from the aft airstairs.

Increase turn times, pad the blocks a bit and watch aircraft utilization drop to be more in line with the "conventional" airlines. Just a fact of life.

SWA wasn't using witchcraft to make their operation work so well, they just operated within a certain "box" that no one else could (or would). Now, they have been steadily venturing outside their box and running into the same problems as everyone else.

TC

 

[Dolce]

It's called "redefining excellence" and trying to squeeze out profit from all the low-hanging fruit through our system. Cutbacks to the point where the ground personel are pushing back...LAS, DEN, BWI, etc.. We have accountants running the system instead of operationally oriented leaders! Also, if you actually read the bios of some of the senior management and where they started in SWA, you see people who literally won the lottery and are protecting their positions at all cost. Their talent of looking pretty and kissing a$$ carried them along way from throwing bags and provisioning aircraft...MIT program and the theory you can train anyone to any level of competence! If they were given the option of "spending more time with the family" they couldn't get hired anywhere at their current management level and salary! Which of these leaders would stand up and point out to an accountants their excellent ideas may not float so well in an operationally-oriented business? Hence the ground delays leading to longer turn times and delayed flights...REDEFINING EXCELLENCE!

 

[scoreboardII]

Redfining Excellence is defined as below average.

 

[igneousy2]

It's called "redefining excellence" and trying to squeeze out profit from all the low-hanging fruit through our system. Cutbacks to the point where the ground personel are pushing back...LAS, DEN, BWI, etc.. We have accountants running the system instead of operationally oriented leaders! Also, if you actually read the bios of some of the senior management and where they started in SWA, you see people who literally won the lottery and are protecting their positions at all cost. Their talent of looking pretty and kissing a$$ carried them along way from throwing bags and provisioning aircraft...MIT program and the theory you can train anyone to any level of competence! If they were given the option of "spending more time with the family" they couldn't get hired anywhere at their current management level and salary! Which of these leaders would stand up and point out to an accountants their excellent ideas may not float so well in an operationally-oriented business? Hence the ground delays leading to longer turn times and delayed flights...REDEFINING EXCELLENCE!

Yep...just like the rest of the airlines.