Originally Posted by CaptainDooley

Good friend of mine is involved with getting ETOPS for another airline. He said that he was told by FAA contact that SWA did not pass the table-tops portion of getting ETOPS.
Now the question would be , how long does the FAA make them wait until they can try again.

ETOPS certification comes out of the Washington DC office, not your airlines's local FISDO, so having the long time connections and good relations doesn't help help you.

I also talked with a CA at ATI when I was jumpseating on them. He was involved with their process of getting ETOPS. He said the FAA fails a lot of airlines on their first try of going through the table-top exercise.