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Southwest Airlines declares 'state of operational emergency' with high number of aircraft out of service
Southwest Airlines on Friday morning issued a blunt memo to hundreds of the carrier’s mechanics. The memo, which came Lonnie Warren, Southwest's senior director of tech ops production, declared what the low-fare carrier called a “state of operational emergency.” The Chicago Business Journal obtained a copy of the memo, sent to 277 mechanics based in Houston and 167 mechanics in Orlando, Florida. The same memo also was distributed to 375 Southwest mechanics based in Phoenix and another 80… (www.bizjournals.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Alarming to passengers. In-light of the past structural problems affecting the fleet, whats next? Are these cheap airfares cutting maintenance corners? rarely does one see such an uproar by mechanics. It was featured story here in Orlando channel 6 a few weeks ago.
If too many planes are out of service it would seem that management is not supplying spares and equipment to get the job done. MX cannot fix a tray table or replace filters if there is no stock in the parts bin.
One airline's operational emergency is another's windfall.
I thought the purpose of Herb buying and operating only one type of Boeing aircraft was to prevent this. Perhaps it's just a case of mechanic union flu? A lot of that flu going around these days ya know.
That is the airline I know... It is a bad culture and anyone who has seen many of my posts knows it.... This is not a bit surprising, but rather more expected...
The last paragraph says a lot for the Culture: "The new declaration also comes as the Inspector General in the United States Department of Transportation is in the middle of an audit of Southwest’s safety culture and alleged cozy relationships between Southwest and some FAA safety inspectors."
The last paragraph says a lot for the Culture: "The new declaration also comes as the Inspector General in the United States Department of Transportation is in the middle of an audit of Southwest’s safety culture and alleged cozy relationships between Southwest and some FAA safety inspectors."
Does seem to be the "New Trend" of Declaring an Emergency to cover an invented emergency due to incompetence on Management . . .