08-31-2021
07:33 PM
08-31-2021
07:33 PM
Pardon my skepticism, but ANYONE can claim to be someone else -- in this case Al Timpauer Southwest Airlines B737 Pilot If Big Al was sending that to prospective members of a hunting party , do you really think he would have put Southwest Airlines B737 Pilot in his message? Why? Why don't you tell us exactly how Big Al contacted you. Something smells awfully fishy.
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04-26-2018
01:11 AM
04-26-2018
01:11 AM
I have been a loyal Southwest customer for many years. But last year, I was on three Southwest flights which all had mechanical problems, one of which required an emergency landing. In 2016 another Southwest engine disintegrated in mid flight causing decompression but no injuries. Now 1380 ushers in Southwest's first passenger fatality due to aircraft failure. Is there a maintenence issue at SWA? Yes there is. I applaud SWA for this forum and hope they fix the systemic culture of profits before safety which a number of SWA mechanics have been outspoken about. As loyal Southwest customers, let's remind Southwest that the safety of their aircraft should be their biggest and most urgent priority--not shareholders or profits. To do otherwise means there will be none of the above.
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The percentages are not that different for all of the airlines in the article, and each would have some mixture of weather and mechanical delays. Southwest's network of flying through many destinations allows them not to take a big weather hit or be as suceptible to a problem at one airport, but when big weather events hit Southwest does have a more extensive list of destinations to recover. We'd have to get some data that showed which percentages were mechanical vs weather to get a better idea - right now a favorable weather service area could have a better on-time percentage, or flying from less congested airports, etc. Southwest probably had great on-time percentages flying in the literal southwest US and I'm sure it has eroded a bit through expansion to AirTran territory with East Coast airports. Anyway, the action item at the end of my ramble: you have a limited ability to search the particular flight you are interested in to see if there is something specific to that route that causes delays. However, the flight numbers are re-assigned regularly which wipes out the easy to search for history within Southwest's website.
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