I'm not excusing people who do not get to work, but as a commuter to STL, the company makes it hard to impossible at times. Take for instance last Tuesday...
There was snow in St. Louis; so, around 12 noon, the company cancelled every single flight from DFW to STL beginning at 2pm for the rest of the day. Now how is a commuter who was going to fly up Tuesday afternoon for a Wednesday morning trip plan for that action by the company. All afternoon/evening flights showed as operating on schedule at 11:30am. At 12 noon they were all cancelled.
By the way, when I saw that the AA flights cancelled, I called Southwest and flew up on their 5:15pm flight. All of their flights from DAL to STL operated that day.
If the company didn't cancel flights willy-nilly or close the ramp at DFW with a heavy dew, the commuter "problem" wouldn't be quite as bad as it is.
Hmm. As one who also spends quite a bit of time on Southwest I was a little taken aback by this article. I can guess how southwest manages to get to places on time and fly through storms. It appears they have a less safe way of doing things than we do. Read on:
FAA levels record $10.2M fine against Southwest
USA TODAY 3/7/2008
The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday issued a $10.2
million fine, " the largest in its history" against Southwest
Airlines.
The FAA said it will seek the fine from Southwest for flying 46 jets
during nine months in 2006 and 2007 without performing required
inspections for cracks in the fuselage.
Cracks eventually were found on six of the planes.
The Boeing 737 jets made 59,791 flights before the airline realized
in March 2007 that the inspections had not been completed. The
airline deliberately made 1,451 more flights after discovering the
lapse, the FAA said.
The agency transferred an FAA supervisor who had been overseeing
Southwest to another job and has "taken appropriate action" against
an unnamed employee, spokeswoman Laura Brown said.
The inspections were ordered after undetected cracks in an Aloha
Airlines 737 allowed a portion of the skin to peel away in flight in
1988, killing a flight attendant.
Southwest, the low-fare carrier that now has more domestic flights
than any other airline, said it had disclosed the missed inspections
to the FAA in March 2007. "We believed at that point that the matter
was closed," spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said.
Southwest said in a statement that safety was never compromised.
The fine comes as the FAA faces a whistle-blower investigation into
whether the agency has become too cozy with the airlines it oversees.
The allegations stem from an FAA program that encourages airlines to
disclose safety problems without fear of being punished.
Linda Goodrich, vice president of the Professional Airways Systems
Specialists, the union that represents FAA inspectors, said many
union members have come forward to complain that the agency abuses
the program.
"The agency has allowed (airlines) to use this system to get around
enforcement actions," Goodrich said.
Airlines have been allowed to "disclose" safety problems and escape
fines even though inspectors initially discovered the problems,
Goodrich said. FAA documents prohibit that practice.
The FAA's Brown said she did not know enough about Goodrich's
allegations to comment.
Whistle-blowers working with the House Transportation Committee had
produced "detailed documentation" about the problem at Southwest,
said a letter from the Inspector General for the Department of
Transportation. Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., asked the
agency to investigate the claims, said the Feb. 11 letter.
The committee had planned to hold a hearing on the issue next week,
but the hearing was canceled because Oberstar requires hip
replacement surgery.
The previous high FAA fine was levied last year against TAG Aviation.
That fine, $10 million, was for operating charter flights in
violation of federal law.
Airlines often pay less than the amount the FAA initially seeks.
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