U.S. Department of Transportation Fines Southwest $1.6 Million for Violating Tarmac Delay Rule

[555_in_PDX]

NO ONE? are you sure... they didn't even have enough people to figure out how to pull the planes off to the gate after unloading?

no mgmt. personnel?

if you want to tell me it was that bad, then why did 555 talk about short staffing and particularly cited MDW even before and esp. after the event?

MDW has always been short staffed and agents working upwars 80 hour per week. These agents are dedicated and workd hard for the company which is a testament to work rule changes that have been agreed upon by SWA and 555. This was not a work action.

 

[WorldTraveler]

thank you so much for weighing in.

Of course MDW has been short-staffed and is the most tightly wound operation on WN's system.

ANY type of operational challenge is going to result in disproportionally larger problems than would occur in other cities.

totally agree this wasn't a work action and nowhere did I say that. This was the result of chronic understaffing which resulted in the same type of operational disasters that have occurred at most northern tier hubs at one time or another.


WN will pay the fine and learn that the model they use in LAS isn't enough for MDW.

IF WN had spent the money they will spend on the fine on more rampers, they wouldn't be paying the fine.

 

[DL2WN]

.

 

[WorldTraveler]

A WN ramper has validated what I said - and against what a host of other ëxperts" said... WN suffered from the operational meltdown because of poor staffing which their union has highlighted for quite some time.

 

[does this plane go to paris]

Why do you disagree with Kev so much over on the DL board.   He's an actual worker at DL.

 

[WorldTraveler]

because I don't agree with his positions.

what does that have to do with WN?

he is hardly the only one that argued that this event wasn't related to short staffing and now that an actual WN employee comes along and validates exactly what I said - that the event was due to chronic understaffing - you want to ask the question of why I disagree with someone.

 

[DL2WN]

.

 

[robbedagain]

he disagrees with most "experts" bec he is an expert himself and he has to be sure he is right all the time regardless when he is proven wrong  
 
I sure hope this situation does not happen again at WN or for that matter any other airline...

 

[WorldTraveler]

The experts didn't try to argue that the reason wasn't due to short staffing.

The people who made that claim were non-WN employees who would do whatever they could to try to prove me wrong.

It was in fact a WN ramper who validated that my assertion was indeed correct.

I would like to know if WN has hired any more rampers at WN or if they are managing the situation solely thru a
less tight schedule - and hopefully an operations control center that is much more careful to monitor staffing levels at stations in the event of IROPS.

no airline wants to have that kind of operational disaster and most learn from it when they have one. B6 is very aggressive at cancelling when JFK weather and ATC starts to go down the tubes.

 

[swamt]

Operational disaster?  Really?  You have got to be kidding.  Get a clue man, it wasn't an operational disaster.  What a DA...

 

[WorldTraveler]

perhaps you can give us a definition of operational disaster, then.

if having multiple flights sitting for hours on the ramp waiting to unload and receiving one of the largest tarmac delay fines in US history isn't an operational disaster, then perhaps you can tell us what event in US airline history was while WN's performance at MDW was not.

 

[Kev3188]

 

MDW has always been short staffed and agents working upwars 80 hour per week. These agents are dedicated and workd hard for the company which is a testament to work rule changes that have been agreed upon by SWA and 555. This was not a work action.

 
I hear ya, but short staffing itself makes a bad situation worse. Still not the root cause of this situation as others have implied, though.

 

[WorldTraveler]

given that WN's operational performance at WN was below the rest of its system on a continual basis then what, pray tell, was the problem if it wasn't that WN wasn't properly staffed for the type of operation WN was running there?

 

[Kev3188]

It's all already been covered; you just keep glossing over it.

 

[WorldTraveler]

it was a winter storm, Kev. we get it.

the same storm didn't just camp over MDW but not ORD. AA and UA operate hubs just miles from MDW. they didn't have the same problems because they have different staffing and operational procedures. other airlines see winter storms at their hubs in the upper Midwest regularly.

WN clearly has learned and has adjusted their schedules to fit their staffing.

like the B6 Valentine's Day operational day disaster at JFK, I doubt we will see this scenario at MDW again.

the fine will help incentivize WN of the necessity to make sure it is a one-time event