By Casey Murray, SWAPA President
Yesterday, your SWAPA Board of Directors released an open letter to the leaders of Southwest Airlines addressing our Pilots’ safety concerns. After four years of SWAPA pleading with the Company to acknowledge and fix the scheduling chaos that is occurring more and more frequently, this was our last effort before the inevitable challenges that our airline and our passengers will face this summer. It’s a sad day that has befallen us, and this was something that none of us wanted to see happen, but fatigue plays into every facet of our job with the cumulative effects playing an even more insidious role. At what point do we say enough is enough?
This step of addressing safety issues was discussed at length at the special "Operation in the Red" BOD meeting last August, but we had hoped that the Company’s tolerance of its scheduling shortfalls would drive some change. That did not occur. If anything, the chaos has gotten worse.
We have seen repeated schedule reductions and hiring used as mitigating tools by the Company to address the lack of IT support and decades-old scheduling processes. And while we are extremely excited about hiring, we would much rather see process changes and efficiencies within scheduling rather than continued schedule reductions.
SWAPA Pilots are the most productive Pilots in the world. The significant rise in safety and fatigue reports is not a Pilot issue but a scheduling mismanagement issue. Rest assured knowing that I’ve had several long discussions about what occurred last summer with previous FAA Administrator Steve Dickson and have a call scheduled with the acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen — this step will not result in increased scrutiny of our Pilots.
Again, I’m sorry it had come to this, but our love of our airline and its continued success means that we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable if we want to emerge stronger and more resilient than before. Addressing these concerns is about the success and prosperity of Southwest Airlines. It’s about flying a summer schedule that is manageable and safe. It’s about processes being put in place so you can actually fly what you bid and pick up Open Time without the fear of it turning into a weeklong ordeal. But most importantly, it’s about discontinuing the scheduling waste so that our airline returns to providing our guests with a safe and reliable experience.
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Information We Collect Automatically
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