Originally Posted by Daniel Larusso

Oscar, I think you taxied right past the observation I was making in my post. 'AA pilots taxi too slow' and 'WN pilots taxi too fast' are two age old pilot gripes that people go round and round about in. I just find the contrast between AA pilots usually admitting that they taxi slowly vs. WN pilots rarely admitting that any of them taxi fast funny. I'm not out to police either carrier, I'll leave that to the feds. So I'll keep my guns, freedom and money and you can keep your challenge.

Originally Posted by Captain Bligh

Oh puke!

Doesn't this qualify as a religious post?

Originally Posted by flaps 9

It's actually a "Servant's Heart"

Gary’s Greeting
As seen in this month’s edition of “Spirit Magazine”

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Culture Done Differently
Back in high school chemistry class, if you mentioned “culture” to me, I had visions of white-coated scientists with pipettes injecting cells into a big blob on a culture dish. The similarity between the chemistry culture and the Culture of Southwest Airlines is that both need the right conditions to grow. For more than 38 years, the Southwest Culture has thrived, but it hasn’t been easy. Perhaps this longevity has been both our biggest accomplishment and our most significant challenge.

Here at Southwest, we think of our Culture in a positive light, but every company has a culture, whether that culture is supportive or stifling, active or passive, fun or discouraging. So just how do we keep our Culture supportive, active, and fun? One way we do culture differently is by making Southwest’s Culture everyone’s responsibility. In fact, we ask everyone to “own it.”

To help keep our Culture at the forefront, we have two groups: Local Culture Committees and the Corporate Culture Committee. Both groups put on low-cost Employee events throughout the year. This month, our Employees will be rolling up their sleeves to help out their area Ronald McDonald Houses at Thanksgiving.

Our Culture Committees are just the beginning of what separates us from the way other companies approach their culture. One of the most significant “Southwest differences” in our pursuit to preserve and promote our Culture is the way it is embedded in every aspect of our Company. How many firms or organizations do you know that make having a “Fun-LUVing Attitude” a key pillar of their leadership expectations? Those same expectations include “The Golden Rule” and possessing a “Servant’s Heart.” In fact, the annual Performance Appraisal for all of our Employees includes a section on Southwest Culture. From an Employee’s initial interview until the day he or she retires, the Southwest Culture is an ingrained part of daily life.

And finally, our Culture encourages celebration, and this is the month to celebrate. First, we celebrate our Veterans on Nov. 11. America would be a much different place without the courage of our Veterans. We then celebrate the blessings of the past year on Thanksgiving. I join with our Employees in wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.

Gary Kelly
Chairman, President, and CEO
Southwest Airlines

Originally Posted by flaps 9

It's actually a "Servant's Heart"

Originally Posted by quimby

ksl.com - Passenger plane evacuated after runway collision

MD-10 takes off SWA winglet

Originally Posted by Sniper

Could also read "SWA pushes 737 into taxiway, striking a taxing MD-10"?

Wasn't expecting a Southwest pilot to post this one in a thread that has turned into a critique of Southwest culture, part of which encourages an 'uptempo' turn to get the plane back in the air.

I gotta' admit, I've seen Southwest gain tremendously by doing things just a touch faster than the rest; call for push first, perhaps block in another aircraft instead of get blocked in yourself (not intentionally, there's only room for one @ a time in the alley), call for taxi first, call ground first coming out of the ramp, willing to accept an intersection departure without delay - I've personally seen Southwest gain 10-15 spots in a departure congo line through these seemingly little time savers, totally independent of any use of a brisk taxi speed. Couple that with asking for direct and the favorable runway for a short taxi to the gate, I can see how they must get HUGE revenue gains, likely getting an entire extra short flight out of each aircraft each day. Call it 'koolaide' if you wish, but, in the end, it makes the company $, which translates into the pilots making more $ or having more days off too.

Is it really true that Southwest doesn't require wing walkers on push-back?

Originally Posted by flaps 9

It's actually a "Servant's Heart"

Gary’s Greeting
As seen in this month’s edition of “Spirit Magazine”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Culture Done Differently
Back in high school chemistry class, if you mentioned “culture” to me, I had visions of white-coated scientists with pipettes injecting cells into a big blob on a culture dish. The similarity between the chemistry culture and the Culture of Southwest Airlines is that both need the right conditions to grow. For more than 38 years, the Southwest Culture has thrived, but it hasn’t been easy. Perhaps this longevity has been both our biggest accomplishment and our most significant challenge.

Here at Southwest, we think of our Culture in a positive light, but every company has a culture, whether that culture is supportive or stifling, active or passive, fun or discouraging. So just how do we keep our Culture supportive, active, and fun? One way we do culture differently is by making Southwest’s Culture everyone’s responsibility. In fact, we ask everyone to “own it.”

To help keep our Culture at the forefront, we have two groups: Local Culture Committees and the Corporate Culture Committee. Both groups put on low-cost Employee events throughout the year. This month, our Employees will be rolling up their sleeves to help out their area Ronald McDonald Houses at Thanksgiving.

Our Culture Committees are just the beginning of what separates us from the way other companies approach their culture. One of the most significant “Southwest differences” in our pursuit to preserve and promote our Culture is the way it is embedded in every aspect of our Company. How many firms or organizations do you know that make having a “Fun-LUVing Attitude” a key pillar of their leadership expectations? Those same expectations include “The Golden Rule” and possessing a “Servant’s Heart.” In fact, the annual Performance Appraisal for all of our Employees includes a section on Southwest Culture. From an Employee’s initial interview until the day he or she retires, the Southwest Culture is an ingrained part of daily life.

And finally, our Culture encourages celebration, and this is the month to celebrate. First, we celebrate our Veterans on Nov. 11. America would be a much different place without the courage of our Veterans. We then celebrate the blessings of the past year on Thanksgiving. I join with our Employees in wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.

Gary Kelly
Chairman, President, and CEO
Southwest Airlines

Originally Posted by Captain Bligh

Oh puke!

Doesn't this qualify as a religious post?

Originally Posted by Sniper

Is it really true that Southwest doesn't require wing walkers on push-back?

Originally Posted by corl737

Push backs require one wing walker and one tug driver. Unfortunately, the wing walkers aren't always in the most appropriate spots. We'd probably do it without any wing walkers if we could figure out how to get the tug driver to disconnect the intercom cord alone ....

Still, there are remarkably few incidents during pushback. Luck? Maybe, but 3000 times a day speaks at least a little for giving credit to the folks driving the tug! (The LAX drivers are remarkable at whipping planes a full 180° in the narrow confines of the alley way on the east side of Terminal 1!)