Maybe not in the not so distant future, but seriously things have got to change on the ground ops part of the equation.

 

Yeah. Been here 16 years and it no longer resembles the company I started at. I think GK is jealous that the legacies got to shed their debt and contracts through CH11. Wouldn't shock me to find out that is his goal as well.

 

Just a small point but the legacies were put into bankruptcy by SWA. Management was quoted as saying they were going to put one or two major airlines out of business with their fuel hedges. The strategy came almost within minutes working when oil plunged from 140 a barrel to 40 a barrel almost overnight and saved the day for the unhedged airlines. Prior to that point SWA had blocked every attempt to raise fares with the increase in fuel prices. Unhedged in the next cycle of dramatic oil price increases SWA not only went along with fare hikes but was one of the leaders in raising fares. Everyone did fine even with oil back up well over 100 a barrel.
The trouble with the airline industry is that a seat is a commodity. When you control 15 percent of a commodity you control pricing. Any of the big airlines can throw the industry into massive losses tomorrow. So far however managements seem to be playing it smart.

 

By all means, please share those quotes with the rest of us.

 

That 100 MDW ground Personel called out sick on the 4th.
I also heard part 117 is hurting Ops on SWA side. And the storm topped it off. Rumors of course

 

My uneducated, uninformed opinion is that it was more weather, combined with a failing ground operation, with some technology issues on the 117 changeover. I don't think it was the new rules themselves.

Honestly, the airline has been barely skimming along all of December. The last couple of days took that maxed capacity and just crumbled like a house of cards.

 

Any weather disruption will forever more reek havoc on the airlines schedules. With no more "legal to start, legal to finish" crews are destined to time out when delayed more than 2 hours.

The buffers airlines use work great when the weather is good (95%) of the time, but will cripple the operation when it is bad. The only solution is to increase the buffers which would drive down productivity and forces us to work the same days for less pay, or more days for the same pay.

Everyone loses under the new rules.

 

Looks like the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in 1/1/14. Look at what happened when they mandated the 3 hour ramp delay rule.

 

Spoke with a SWA pilot at MCO midday Saturday.

He said everything was a mess because the scheduling system had crashed and scheduling was begging everyone to pick up open time through text messages, website alerts, etc.

 

The passenger bill of rights added another twist. If there is an inkling it may get triggered cancellation is called on and those folks are dumped into a system bursting at its limits. Thank the gubmint for the opposite of the Midas touch. Everything the gubmint touches turns to Shiite.