On Mar 7, 9:12*am, K Baum wrote:
On Mar 7, 9:40*am, Eric Greenwell wrote: I'm paying for a safe, no-frills flight to my destination. I know I'm
getting the no-frills part, but do you have references that show I'm not
getting the "safe" part? Does SWA have a significantly worse safety
record than, say, Delta, another carrier I can conveniently choose?

EG, this is a good question. I dont have much time to answer right now
but I will tell you this much; There are differing levels of
Regulatory compliance, operational oversight, maintenence standards,
training standards etc.. All the airlines fly the same planes, pay
similar wages, use the same fuel, and so on, so when you come across a
carrier that charges substantially less than all the rest, consider
that discount has to come from somewhere. I have jumpseated on SWA
flights and I have seen stuff on a regular basis that would get one of
our crews fired (Or at least some time off). Another good example of
cutting corners is the De/AntiIce procedures and policies. The next
time you are at the field during a snow storm take a look out the
window at SWA,s practices verses the other airlines. It may save alot
of time to cut corners in this area, but if one of their jets ever has
an engine problem on climbout that 89 dollar ticket isnt gonna seem
like such a bargain. This is one of the biggest complaints that my SWA
buddies have with the place.
Gotta run,
FB

The fatalities per million flights stats would confirm that SWA is
safer than only a few US airlines, namely: Alaska, Aloha, American,
Continental, Delta, Midwest Express, Northwest, United and US
Airways. Jet Blue also hasn't killed anyone - but they haven't flown
nearly as many trips as SWA.

The argument that SWA's cheaper tickets come out of maintenance costs
flies in the face of the most strightforward analysis. For airlines
operating 737-800s (Continental, American, Delta, Sun Country, ATA,
Alaska) the average total operating cost is: 43% fuel, 23% a/c
financing, 18% crew and 9% direct maitenance. SWA can't cut enough
maintenance corners to make a difference in ticket price. The way
they get lower costs is by flying more trips per aircraft per year and
per crew per year. They do this because the have a far more efficient
operating model (all point to point flying, faster boarding, keeping
cews and a/c together to minimize the impact of disruptions) and less
onerous crew work rules leading to more flight hours per FAA "clocked"
hour - work rules at other carriers encourage building up non-
productive time to increase the number of union-dues-paying pilots
required per flight hour. None of these differences affects safety,
and some may in fact enhance safety.

No, I'm not excusing their skipping inspections - but apparently they
do less meaningful corner-cutting than most - at least according to
the actual facts.

9B