Vinterværtråden 2022/2023

[dc-8-63]

Fra en pilot hos Southwest: (det er gitt tillatelse til aa dele)

What happened to Southwest Airlines?
I’ve been a pilot for Southwest Airlines for over 35 years. I’ve given my heart and soul to Southwest Airlines during those years. And quite honestly Southwest Airlines has given its heart and soul to me and my family.
Many of you have asked what caused this epic meltdown. Unfortunately, the frontline employees have been watching this meltdown coming like a slow motion train wreck for sometime. And we’ve been begging our leadership to make much needed changes in order to avoid it. What happened yesterday started two decades ago.
Herb Kelleher was the brilliant CEO of SWA until 2004. He was a very operationally oriented leader. Herb spent lots of time on the front line. He always had his pulse on the day to day operation and the people who ran it. That philosophy flowed down through the ranks of leadership to the front line managers. We were a tight operation from top to bottom. We had tools, leadership and employee buy in. Everything that was needed to run a first class operation. When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO.
Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didn’t engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesn’t get out in the trenches the neither do the lower levels of leadership.
Gary named another accountant to be Chief Operating Officer (the person responsible for day to day operations). The new COO had little or no operational background. This trickled down through the lower levels of leadership, as well.
They all disengaged the operation, disengaged the employees and focused more on Return on Investment, stock buybacks and Wall Street. This approach worked for Gary’s first 8 years because we were still riding the strong wave that Herb had built.
But as time went on the operation began to deteriorate. There was little investment in upgrading technology (after all, how do you measure the return on investing in infrastructure?) or the tools we needed to operate efficiently and consistently. As the frontline employees began to see the deterioration in our operation we began to warn our leadership. We educated them, we informed them and we made suggestions to them. But to no avail. The focus was on finances not operations. As we saw more and more deterioration in our operation our asks turned to pleas. Our pleas turned to dire warnings. But they went unheeded. After all, the stock price was up so what could be wrong?
We were a motivated, willing and proud employee group wanting to serve our customers and uphold the tradition of our beloved airline, the airline we built and the airline that the traveling public grew to cheer for and luv. But we were watching in frustration and disbelief as our once amazing airline was becoming a house of cards.
A half dozen small scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010’s. With each mini meltdown Leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990’s technology. We didn’t have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become. We could see that the wheels were about ready to fall off the bus. But no one in leadership would heed our pleas.
When COVID happened SWA scaled back considerably (as did all of the airlines) for about two years. This helped conceal the serious problems in technology, infrastructure and staffing that were occurring and being ignored. But as we ramped back up the lack of attention to the operation was waiting to show its ugly head.
Gary Kelly retired as CEO in early 2022. Bob Jordan was named CEO. He was a more operationally oriented leader. He replaced our Chief Operating Officer with a very smart man and they announced their priority would be to upgrade our airline’s technology and provide the frontline employees the operational tools we needed to care for our customers and employees. Finally, someone acknowledged the elephant in the room.
But two decades of neglect takes several years to overcome. And, unfortunately to our horror, our house of cards came tumbling down this week as a routine winter storm broke our 1990’s operating system.
The frontline employees were ready and on station. We were properly staffed. We were at the airports. Hell, we were ON the airplanes. But our antiquated software systems failed coupled with a decades old system of having to manage 20,000 frontline employees by phone calls. No automation had been developed to run this sophisticated machine.
We had a routine winter storm across the Midwest last Thursday. A larger than normal number flights were cancelled as a result. But what should have been one minor inconvenient day of travel turned into this nightmare. After all, American, United, Delta and the other airlines operated with only minor flight disruptions.
The two decades of neglect by SWA leadership caused the airline to lose track of all its crews. ALL of us. We were there. With our customers. At the jet. Ready to go. But there was no way to assign us. To confirm us. To release us to fly the flight. And we watched as our customers got stranded without their luggage missing their Christmas holiday.
I believe that our new CEO Bob Jordan inherited a MESS. This meltdown was not his failure but the failure of those before him. I believe he has the right priorities. But it will take time to right this ship. A few years at a minimum. Old leaders need to be replaced. Operationally oriented managers need to be brought in. I hope and pray Bob can execute on his promises to fix our once proud airline. Time will tell.
It’s been a punch in the gut for us frontline employees. We care for the traveling public. We have spent our entire careers serving you. Safely. Efficiently. With luv and pride. We are horrified. We are sorry. We are sorry for the chaos, inconvenience and frustration our airline caused you. We are angry. We are embarrassed. We are sad. Like you, the traveling public, we have been let down by our own leaders.
Herb once said the the biggest threat to Southwest Airlines will come from within. Not from other airlines. What a visionary he was. I miss Herb now more than ever.” #southwestairlines

[LN-MOW]

Originally Posted by dc-8-63

Fra en pilot hos Southwest: (det er gitt tillatelse til aa dele)

Bra skrevet. Og den har vært postet stort sett over alt i dag ....

[dc-8-63]

Originally Posted by LN-MOW

Bra skrevet. Og den har vært postet stort sett over alt i dag ....

Men ikke her inne inntil naa

[LN-MOW]

Originally Posted by dc-8-63

Men ikke her inne inntil naa

Det var mere det 'tillatelse til å poste' som jeg småflirte av ..

[Someone]

Ser ut sm en ny storm er på vei til å treffe KEF senere på nyttårsaften

[LN-AFG]

God oppsummering av hvordan Southwest hadde fullstendig nedsmelting av operasjonen sin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEFf2CQypc

[view]

For øvrig kom da altså Southwest seg fullt i gang igjen i går fredag, med kun 43 kanselleringer, så de lyktes med re-starten sin. Dette er vel ikke siste uværs dagen denne vinteren så vi får se om de ryker på nok en smell med dette Commodore 64 IT systemet sitt.

[Midtiblinken]

For 4-5 dager siden var det litt ledig kapasitet i systemet, vurderte og reise litt. Over natta var alt fullt med alle. Jeg bestemte meg for og dra på jobb, og mange rundt meg i flyet kom fra SWA. De kjøpte billetter på AA og leverte inn kvittering til SWA. Har aldri hørt at det ble gjort før.
Hørte den første SWA på frekvensen i går, han sjekket inn på FL410, som betyr at de var veldig lette.
Dette blir svindyrt.

[LN-MOW]

Og SÅ glad ble Soutwest-passasjeren da han fant kofferten sin ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCa3Nye2aso

[Midtiblinken]

I STL nå på tu hjem med SWA. Mye folk, men trafikken går som normalt. En god del ledige seter.
Kapteinen som tok meg hit sa estimert kostnad for forrige uke er $700M. Men sikkert over $1B og fikse problemet.

[Someone]

Ser det meldes snø på BGO, og flyplassen må tidvis stenges for brøyting

[Hickok]

Kan bekrefte det. Landet litt etter kl.8 i dag uten et fnugg av svart på rullebanen (eller resten av flyplassområdet for den del). Det laver ned ganske så bra i byen nå. Er ikke ofte en bruker hele rullebanen til endes før en kjører av.

[Someone]

Ser ut som det er endel vær på KEF i dag, så ikke alt går helt sømløst

[petter380]

Freezing fog på Heathrow Airport: Dozens of flights cancelled due to freezing fog https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64370940

[Trdfly]

Det har de siste dagene vært så dårlig vær på Island, at de fleste innenriksflyvningene har vært kansellert. Dermed har Icelandair satt opp Boeing 757-200 med en rundtur hver til Egilsstaðir og Akureyri i dag fra RKV, i tillegg til Dash 8. mulig det kanskje er noe teknisk på en Dash 8-200 i tillegg…(?)

[Someone]

Ser ut som både SAS og Norwegian sliter i TOS i dag. Norwegian gikk nettopp til BDU i stedet, men ser ut som SAS skal gjøre et nytt forsøk?

[Someone]

Norwegian kom seg aldri ned i LYR i går

Og i dag er det endel trekk i luften på KEF, så veldig mye er kansellert der

[Someone]

Ser ut som det blir mye kanselleringer i Lofoten og rundt der på onsdag

[SK384]

Jeg ser i lokalavisene at passasjerene fra Oslo til Alta i går med kveldsflyet har hatt en interessant tur. Flyet tok av fra Oslo mot Tromsø hvor det skal mellomlande før det drar videre mot Alta. I går var flyet over Tromsø hvor det nok ikke kunne lande på grunn av grisevær. Flyet gikk deretter til Trondheim (tipper for å fuele) før det satte kursen tilbake mot Oslo. De brukte mao 4,5 time for å komme tilbake til utgangspunktet. Norwegian satt opp et ekstra morgenfly til Tromsø og Alta i dag for å få passasjerene nordover. Flyet kom seg greit ned i Tromsø. Kursen ble så satt mot Alta. Etter to strafferunder endte det med å diverte til Tromsø før det fløy tilbake til Oslo. Kjedelig med to bomturer for pax'en som skulle til Alta.

[Someone]

Du som skulle med Wizz London-Tromsø i dag, får seg heller en tur til Jessheim