I don’t think it’s so much a ‘Texas’ issue as much as it is other problems. One could easily say the same thing you just said about every airlines’ management in every part of the country where they are headquartered. It’s not the location, it’s the PEOPLE. It’s human beings.

There are incompetent people everywhere. Get rid of those incompetent people in management, and many of your problems will likely go away. Fire the brown-nosers who are good at one thing, brown-nosing, and bring in the go-getters who can get chit done. Apart of this might have to do with southwest’s recruiting culture as to who they hire into management positions. They probably need to change their hiring practices completely. Revamp the system. But I could easily say this for any airline’s management staff. Not just SWA. And I wouldn’t blame the location for that. I lived in Texas for 7 years. I’m very familiar with that state and the culture and mindset many Texans have. But how do we know that ‘Texas’ is the reason for Southwest’ woes?

I would surmise that southwest has probably hired people from all over the country, not just locally from around the DFW area, to work at headquarters. The real problem that many companies suffer from, are ‘lifers’ in management/office cubicle positions who get so dug into their positions at their place of work, that they start to follow company bureaucracy more than being an independent thinker and they are no longer capable of effecting positive change, innovation, etc. The ‘careerist’ mindset is very strong the higher up the chain you go. Not trying to rag on senior employees in many companies, but these careerists get burned out and they lose that drive they once had. Many of them become over the hill burnouts and they stop trying to make things better for the organization they work for. They’re just coasting until retirement. Seen it too much. Dealt with this more times than I care to remember in a previous aviation job (non-airline). It frustrated the hell out of me. Some things I couldn’t change as it was beyond my control, but some things I could. They learn to accept status quo on many things. They learn to climb the ladder via ‘brown nosing’ and how to be ‘likeable’ over other more important things. I’ve seen it before where sometimes younger ones come in, and, though they may have less experience, they are enthusiastic and have a lot of energy and they shake things up a little bit. They try to make changes, and it turned out good for the company. With lifers, eventually things can get so bad with their incompetence that it trickles all the way down to the lower level employees and the organization starts to become poisoned by their mismanagement/incompetence, etc. usually things will just continue to get worse because incompetence usually breeds incompetence.

It’s not until someone comes along and shakes things up and kicks out the toxic sludge that is dragging the company down is when real change occurs. I’ve been pretty lucky to have witnessed this type of thing happen in 2 companies I’ve worked in, both in aviation. Without better leaders who came in at the right time, I’m positive both companies would have just continued on a downward trajectory until they failed completely.

 

Well said!

 

Because it isn't just management that is Textarded. MANY of our office mates in the pointy cubicle are chock full of TTextardation. I got to sit this episode out and watch from the sidelines. But my family was caught up in it.
As far as pulling the ripcord? I've got 14 years to go and I hope it lasts that long. I look at it this way. This one splooged so much "egg" on their face up in the big D, there's NO WAY they get away with keeping on with the same ineptitude. I foresee them being forced to update out of dinosaurland at whatever the expense is. I really hope that starts with sending GK packing. He was inept as a leader and he should not be the chairman any longer after this.

 

I agree


GK has been pulling the strings from behind the curtain. BJ allowed to himself to be manipulated and do as he’s told. They both need to go . The stockholders along with all the passengers deserve better. .

 

Im not disagreeing with you…but is this personal opinion or do you have more concrete evidence?

 

I would think the single 737 type would help with a recovery as opposed to having A320, 737, 767, etc…

if we have a big meltdown at work, which is outside aviation, cash is spent and all hands on deck until the issue is resolved. Was any effort made to bring bodies (pilots, FA, ramp, gate agents, etc..) even if not needed? I’m just confused how the issue could go on for so long. I understand bad things can happen, but after a few days, things should get back to normal even if clearing a backlog. Appears normalcy might not return until next year.

 

There were more than enough bodies for everything to run.

The computers couldn't legalize any crew fast enough... and the process to get people on a trip took too long due to scheduling phone lines, etc all saturated and then the terminator cancelled flights before they could be crewed... repeat and rinse and repeat and just repeat...

 

no, and I don’t think it would have helped. Simply would have added to the number of crew members they couldn’t keep track of. There were plenty of employees available…

 

If this happens the upgrade at Southwest will go to 20 years.

Its just math.

 

and LOTS of crews that we just DHing 2-4 legs to get somewhere for a canceled flight. I saw the boards of 25-30 TFP 3 days with 1 or 2 legs operated.