Gate-to-gate timings have been lengthened. Only this year was the airline able to implement a new schedule, starting in August.Īs Southwest officials explained to Snyder, turn times for even the smaller-capacity Boeing 737s in the carrier’s fleet were increased to 35 minutes, and on larger-capacity planes as much as 50 minutes. Even a five-minute delay in an early flight reverberated through the day, so that an aircraft might be as much as an hour off-schedule by its last flight.Īmazingly, Snyder reports, Southwest was unable to quickly revise its schedule to eliminate delays because of its antiquated reservations system, which couldn’t accommodate a large number of schedule changes.

As Southwest’s service cities had expanded, more passengers were checking bags, another obstacle to quick turns. Its passengers-per-plane, or “load factors,” had risen, making it harder to load and unload passengers to meet its narrow turn times. By November and December, it was already clear that the schedule’s demanding tolerances could only be met on days with near-perfect weather and no mechanical mishaps-and those were rare days indeed. Southwest implemented its new, extra-packed schedule in August 2013, hoping to exploit strong travel demand and strong fares.

(Snyder conducted the interview in early September during an airline media event for which Southwest paid for Snyder’s airfare and lodging.) Indeed, Southwest’s operational standards were even tighter than most, with turn times as brief as 25 minutes. Van de Ven, is one of surprising miscalculation in an industry with very tight operational margins. The story Snyder tells, based on an interview with Southwest Executive Vice President Michael G. In early 2013, Southwest was consistently beating the industry in on-time arrivals. It’s still not home in August, according to FAA figures, the airline’s on-time performance still lagged all domestic carriers by a couple of percentage points. Southwest has spent much of the last year trying to undo the damage. As Snyder puts it, “Southwest was going to operate the equivalent of 16 new airplanes’ worth of flying without increasing its fleet at all.” The carrier looked at its performance during 2012, a mild weather year, and decided to roll the dice that it could squeeze more out of the same collection of stones. The problem was caused by Southwest’s deliberate, and very ill-advised, strategy to cram more flights into its schedule without expanding its aircraft fleet and while adding seats to its existing planes. Now, courtesy of Brett Snyder of the popular travel website, we’re getting a fuller explanation. The airline explained to the press, blandly, that its problems were caused by “ scheduling too many flights at the most popular takeoff times,” and shortening the turn - the time set aside for loading and unloading passengers - to accommodate the super-packed schedule. Luckily for Southwest, the airline had built up a reservoir of goodwill from years of low-frills but effective service so that its statistics on customer complaints didn’t soar even as its on-time performance collapsed. More flights arrived late, and more flights sat on the ground past their departure times, waiting for connecting passengers from flights that arrived late, and so on and so on. Starting last fall, passengers on Southwest Airlines’ usually reliable flights began noticing a sharp deterioration in on-time performance.

Southwest ontime