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2nd May 2018

Southwest Airlines gets applause from President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has come forward to prais the crew members and passengers of a Southwest Airlines flight for their handling of an emergency landing two weeks ago after an engine exploded. 5 crew members and 5 passengers were invited to the Oval Office where they met Trump, who said that they were “some incredible people.” The visit, arranged after the White House contacted the airline, was the crew’s first public appearance since the April 17 incident, Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said. Pilot Tammie Jo Shults, who joined Southwest in 1994, was in the first cohort of women Navy pilots to transition to tactical aircraft and served as an instructor pilot flying the EA-6B Prowler and F/A-18 Hornet. Trump said Shults and the rest of the crew “displayed exemplary leadership” during the episode. “You were calm and strong and cool.”

Shults, with the help of her crew were able to land the plane safely in Philadelphia, but shrapnel broke a window while it was still in flight, partially sucking out Jennifer Riordan, 43, who was fatally injured. She was the only one of the 149 people aboard the plane who experienced harmful injuries.

9th April 2018

Southwest Airlines named on Tripadvisor's Top 10 airlines

Southwest Airlines has reached an impressive number 6 on Tripadvisor's newly released list of Top 10 airlines. As reported by one Tripadvisor user; "We choose to fly Southwest whenever we can. Their flights are on time and the service is friendly and efficient. We don't mind not having assigned seats. Bags fly free, and we always check ours. Frequent Flier miles are easy to accumulate with their membership program." Southwest airline's reputation continues to grow this way, as the list was compiled by taking into account the quantity and quality of airline reviews and ratings submitted over the last twelve months to TripAdvisor.

Nashville International Airport has been announcing a slew of new flights recently, and here comes another one.

The airport announced today that Southwest Airlines, already the biggest carrier at BNA, will offer nonstop service to Oklahoma City starting Oct. 7.

The once-a-week flight will leave Nashville at 10 a.m. on Sundays. Return flights will arrive at 3:30 p.m.

“Nashville International Airport’s roster of nonstop flights continues to grow, and with the addition of Oklahoma City, we’re pleased to add yet another destination previously not served at BNA,” Doug Kreulen, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority president and CEO, said in a news release. “We appreciate Southwest Airlines’ continued commitment to our airport and the Nashville community.”

Two of Southwest’s new routes will come from its base at Houston Hobby, where daily non-stop service to Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., will begin Oct. 3.

Additionally, Southwest will add daily non-stop service between Denver and Memphis. That route also begins Oct. 3. Southwest will offer one round-trip flight each weekday on all three routes.  

Two other routes – Oklahoma City-Nashville and Denver-El Paso – will get Sunday-only non-stop service.

Southwest also is turning to Phoenix for growth. The carrier did not announce new non-stop routes, but said it will add one additional weekday flight to its existing schedules on five of its “most-popular” routes there. Once the additions begin on Oct. 3, Southwest’s Phoenix schedule will change on the following routes:

- Austin: Increases to 5 weekday round-trips, up from 4

- Denver: Increases to 11 weekday round-trips, up from 10

- New Orleans: Increases to 2 weekday round-trips, up from 1

- San Antonio: Increases to 4 weekday round-trips, up from 3

- San Jose, Calif.: Increases to 7 weekday round-trips, up from 6

In addition to the new routes and expanded service in Phoenix, Southwest also revealed the return of several seasonal routes to its fall and winter schedule. Among those are:

- Albany-Las Vegas: Resumes Oct. 3; flights operates Sunday through Friday.

- Cleveland-Orlando: Resumes Oct. 6; Saturdays only.

- Milwaukee-Fort Myers, Fla.: Resumes Oct. 6; Saturdays only.

- Oakland-Tucson: Resumes Oct. 7; Sundays only.

Southwest Airlines makes a big impact with its January on-time arrivale atatistics

Southwest airlines has manags to score a punctuality rating of 80.9% of flights arriving on time, beating its competitor, Delta Airlines to the top spot. Delta Airline was appointed a rating of 80.4% by global aviation number cruncher OAG. As one of the four largest carrers in the USA, this is a great result, and Southwest did so after lagging in on-time performance for much of 2017 — an issue the carrier attributed to more crowded planes and bad weather, among other things.

Southwest's January numbers certainly suggest the carrier may (emphasis on "may") have found a way to handle these issues. Interestingly, the carrier's on-time results in January come as Southwest announced the appointment of a new vice-president of operations, a positon that had been vacant for a while, according to a Southwest spokeswoman. Southwest's January on-time results also come in the wake of something I saw on a Southwest flight departing from Chicago's Midway Airport last week that I had never before witnessed in many years of traveling on Southwest flights.

When all overhead bin space was filled to capacity before all passengers had boarded a flight to Nashville, two customer service agents and the pilot quickly materialized on the jetway to proactively start checking bags of those customers still waiting to board the plane. It was some quick thinking (and action) that probably helped the plane be able to push back closer to its scheduled departure time. United brought up the rear in third place, with 78.7% of their flights arriving on time. 

Southwest Airlines is adding a new nonstop flight service between Houston and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands next summer, a flight that will operate weekly on Saturdays. The carrier is also adding new service from both Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham to Cancunon the Caribbean coast of Mexico.

Those flights will operate on Saturdays beginning June 9, 2018; next summer will be Southwest’s largest-ever flight schedule to Cancun, with nonstop service from 16 gateway airports in the United States. Additionally, Southwest is increasing its summer flight service to Puerto Rico in 2018 with daily flights between Chicago-Midway and San Juan, Puerto Rico. That’s along with augmented daily seasonal service between Houston Hobby and San Juan, with a second flight on Saturdays and Sundays, also beginning June 9, 2018.

CAPA - Centre for Aviation senior analyst (the Americas) Lori Ranson, speaking at CAPA's 2017 Latin America Aviation Summit, stated (12-Sep-2017) that US low cost carrier Southwest Airlines is cleverly using ancillaries to differentiate itself, but without unbundling. While other US airlines are charging for checked bags, Southwest continues to include them within the price of tickets, She highlighted that while the airline may not be gaining revenue directly, the policy has become a major marketing tool promoting its brand. "The fact that Southwest does not charge for bags is now part of their core identity. To go against that now would create so much bad publicity. It's their philosophy now", she said.

Many victims of Hurricane Harvey sadly lost their homes — including quite a few who walk on four legs. When Texas shelters found themselves overrun with homeless pets after last month's storm, Southwest Airlines stepped in to help move dozens of animals across the country.

Southwest first partnered with Helen Woodward Animal Center of San Diego, California, in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy. Upon seeing the damage caused by Harvey, the shelter and airline quickly hooked up again. After operating several relief flights for customers and employees, Southwest donated a flight to transport about 60 cats and dogs from Houston to San Diego.

"The idea was to move animals who were already in the shelters when the hurricane hit and were now facing euthanization ... to make room for families' pets that become homeless after Harvey," explained Michelle Agnew, a spokesperson for Southwest.

On Aug. 31, the Helen Woodward staff flew to Houston's Operation Pets Alive (OPA!), where the homeless cats and dogs were being housed temporarily. The shelter staff determined how many animals were fit to fly and could be accommodated in California. Southwest then provided the aircraft to transport the pets on Sept. 5th.

Once in California, the animals received lots of love to help them recover from their ordeal.

"They're doing as well as they can considering the circumstances," said Mindy Wright, a representative of Helen Woodward Animal Center. "They were already in a tough situation, packed in close quarters without their normal routines or medications, and then had to go through the plane ride."

She continued, "By the time they got to us ... some aren't feeling well, some are recovering from trauma, and some are in line to get microchips, vaccinations, and other things we require before we can adopt them out."

Wright is pleased to report that the first round of animals — including a trio of dogs named Larry, Curly and Moe, and a couple of "hound puppies with squishy faces"— went up for adoption on Saturday.

Both Agnew and Wright expressed interest in making a similar effort after Hurricane Irma, though they'll need to assess the situation before knowing more details.

As for the rest of the Harvey survivors, they're in good hands until they're ready to find their fur-ever homes.

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