Category Archives: Aviation

New Test for the Three-Hour Rule

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I don’t have any data on how much the new three-hour rule for tarmac delays has affected us over the last few months, and probably shouldn’t publish them if I did. But I do suspect that the next four months will provide the toughest test for the new rule.

Winter weather is one of the biggest challenges we face. Running an airline in any weather is difficult, and winter adds a host of complications including frozen precipitation, deicing requirements, variable runway traction, poor visibility, and our employees’ difficulty getting to work through the nasty weather. As I explained in more detail this spring, these factors combine to greatly increase the chances that some flights will need to wait on the tarmac for some time before takeoff or after landing.

This article in the Wall Street Journal discusses some of the airlines’ preparations for winter under the new rules and the impact they expect.

Don’t be fooled by one statistic in the article. The DOT argues that the airlines aren’t canceling significantly more flights. Citing September 2010 as an example, it claims the airlines canceled 0.9 percent of their flights compared to 0.6 percent in September 2009. September is one of the best weather months for a North American airline. The air is starting to cool, reducing the frequency and severity of tarmac-delay-causing thunderstorms, and Old Man Winter is still a couple of months away as well. It’s rare that an opportunity would exist for a three-hour tarmac delay in September. For a better measure of the rule’s impact, we’ll need to consider the number of cancelations for November through March. I suspect they’ll be significantly higher.

I can certainly understand why someone wouldn’t want to be trapped for hours on an airplane. I wouldn’t, either. However, the airlines must operate safely and legally above all, and sometimes we can’t achieve those goals without inconveniencing some of our passengers. Given the choice between a long wait on the plane and potentially having to wait a day or more to reach my destination, I’d rather take the delay unless I was traveling with my kids. If I could see that the weather could be a problem, I would plan ahead and bring some food, water, and plenty of entertainment just in case.

Things that Suck

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My renewed interest in college football, thanks to the surprising success of my Baylor Bears, inspired this post. What are some of the most worthless institutions or practices in America? Here are a few in my book:

  • Bowl Championship Series (BCS) – Every sport I know of, from Little League to the pros, offers some type of competition system that produces a legitimate champion. Many use a traditional playoff system. Some use a hybrid of round-robin and traditional playoff or a double-elimination playoff. However, there is one exception: college football. Instead of the playoff system that everyone wants except the BCS commissioner and a few businessmen, college football uses an incomprehensible computer ranking system to determine which two teams get to play for the national championship. Only the schools from certain high-profile conferences have any realistic chance at being ranked in the top two. Every year, it seems, at least one undefeated school is left out by the BCS. Why does the BCS exist? Supposedly it’s about money, but I fail to see how an eight-team playoff system couldn’t help but bring in more TV and ticket revenue than the existing system.
  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – OK, is the TSA truly worthless? No. We must have some sort of security for our airlines. However, the TSA doesn’t make me feel much safer. It spends billions of dollars creating the illusion of safety – adding fancy machines, employing tens of thousands of people, enforcing ridiculous rules – to make the public feel safer about flying. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to make flying or anything else completely safe. Undercover agents routinely pass contraband through TSA checkpoints. Anyone who really wants to get around the TSA’s rules (or any other security) will find a way to do so. In the meantime, both airline pilots and 70-year-old grandmothers have to take their shoes off and put all their liquids in bottles of a certain size and store them in a plastic baggie for scanning to satisfy the rules. But Grandma can take her huge, pointy knitting needles onboard because they aren’t considered a weapon.
  • Electoral College – We think we elect our President, but all we really do is vote to decide which other people get to elect our President. Margin of victory is meaningless. If the presidential candidate wins a majority within a state, he/she wins ALL of the electoral votes cast by some mysterious group of people for that state. As a result, it is possible to get more votes than one’s opponent and yet still lose the election. It happened in 2000. Like him or hate him, Al Gore won the election but didn’t get the job.
  • Filibuster in the US Senate – Legislating is hard work. It’s even harder when yahoos from one party have the power to prevent new legislation from even coming to a vote. Both parties have been guilty of this act numerous times. It’s a wonder the Senate gets ANYTHING done.
  • Telemarketing – Need I say more? On the plus side, ditching our landline has almost eliminated telemarketing calls.

Sorry for the negative post, but I’m going to be very upset if TCU doesn’t get to play for the national championship because of a stupid computer. What else can you think of?

Southwest – AirTran Merger

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DISCLAIMER: Although I am a Southwest employee, I am just a lowly dispatcher and was not involved with this transaction in any way. The opinions expressed on AndyBox.com are solely my own and do not reflect the position of Southwest Airlines, its Board of Directors, its Leadership, or anyone else who has any authority whatsoever over anything.

I’m sure many of you heard last week about Southwest’s plans to acquire AirTran. In a nutshell, we’re buying them for a combination of cash and Southwest stock, and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2011, assuming all the regulatory agencies bless it. After that, we will merge our operations with theirs over a two-year period. The airline will remain based in Dallas with Gary at the helm.

I am VERY excited about this acquisition. AirTran is a well-run and successful airline. A couple of my coworkers came from AirTran, and they are both excellent dispatchers and valuable assets to our team. Here are some of the key benefits I see:

  • Atlanta – As the world’s busiest airport and a major business destination, ATL has been a huge hole in our network for many years. However, it’s extremely difficult to obtain gate space there. By buying AirTran, we instantly get 30 gates.
  • Other New Destinations – AirTran serves several airports that we don’t serve. Some are domestic, such as Rochester, Wichita, Branson, and Memphis. Others are international, such as Nassau, Montego Bay, and Cancun. With the exception of DFW, we plan to continue serving all of these destinations, creating a formidable nationwide network. We also get additional slots at LaGuardia and new slots at Washington Reagan, which are both very difficult to obtain.
  • New Aircraft Type – AirTran flies both the 737-700, which we also fly, and the 717-200, which is new to us. We plan to keep the 717s, configure them with 117 all-coach seats, and use them in smaller markets that don’t need the size of a 737.

For me, the main differences will be new airports, a different aircraft type, and most importantly, new coworkers. Since most of the employees at both airlines are unionized, one of the toughest questions will be how to combine similar work groups with regard to culture and seniority. It’s up to the unions, not management, to work out how to combine the seniority lists. Although my pay shouldn’t change as a result of this merger, it could boost my seniority a bit, which would help when bidding for my schedule and vacation. My main concern is that all the different unions can work out agreements that everyone can live with. I look forward to welcoming the AirTran dispatchers to our office and will probably get to sit with some of them as a trainer.

For Further Reading:

A Larger Plane for SWA?

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Mockup of the 737-800 in SWA livery from Airliners.net. Note the slightly longer fuselage and additional overwing exit.

DISCLAIMER: Although I work for Southwest, I have no inside information about this project, only speculation, and any opinions I post here are solely my own and do not in any way represent those of Southwest Airlines, its Board of Directors, Employees, or Stockholders.

Today Southwest Airlines announced that it was considering the additional of a new 737 model, the larger 737-800. I have thought for years that such a move might be wise, so I’m thrilled to hear that we are moving forward. Since we announced it, I am 99 percent sure we’ll end up buying some, although I think (and hope!) there’s a chance we’ll get the even larger 737-900ER.

The -800 offers us two main advantages:

  • About 38 more seats compared to the -300 and -700 that make up the vast majority of our fleet (175 vs. 137)
  • Lower operating costs per seat-mile

If you’ve flown us recently, there’s a good chance you noticed that our planes are extremely full. Our network planners have done a great job of eliminating or rescheduling unprofitable routes to fill up our planes and make us more money. On some routes, especially the long ones, every flight on every day is almost completely full. We could easily add 20-30 people simply by making the seats available for sale.

Also, we now operate at two airports (Orange County and LaGuardia) that are slot-controlled, meaning we only have the right to operate a limited number of flights per day. We want to get slots at Reagan National as well but haven’t succeeded yet. A larger aircraft would allow us to carry more people with the available slots. At some other airports, we don’t have as many gates as we would like, which limits the number of flights we can operate. The -800 would provide a similar benefit in those situations.

Adding the -800 would add a bit of complexity, such as an extra flight attendant and fewer options for swapping aircraft, but the benefits far outweigh the costs. I am very excited about this possibility and hope to see a 737-800 in SWA colors in 2012.

Visit the Airliners.net discussion in case you want to read more.

737 Delivery Flight

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As I mentioned last week, Jenny and I got the chance to go to Seattle with several coworkers and leaders to pick up a new 737-700 and bring it back to Dallas. It was a wonderful experience that we might never get to repeat, and I’m so thankful I got to go and share it with Jenny and my great coworkers.

The pictures tell much of the story, but here are a few more details. We arrived in SEA a bit early, checked in at the hotel, and hung out with our crew at a nice reception where I got to visit with several people I don’t normally see much due to our conflicting schedules. At the reception, they raffled off a few prizes. The Boxes won not once but twice: a beautiful model 787-8 for me, and a seat in the cockpit for takeoff for Jenny.

Friday morning, Boeing treated us to a huge breakfast buffet before we hit the Boeing Store to buy some souvenirs: a couple of toys for the boys, a t-shirt for Jenny, and – of course – a model plane for me, this one a 777-300ER. All the guests got to listen in on the FAA conference call during which Boeing transfers the aircraft title to us. Apparently the payment is handled separately. My friend Kevin got to sign for acceptance of the aircraft, apparently the first time in SWA history a non-pilot was given that honor. The Boeing official joked that Kevin’s credit wasn’t quite good enough to finance the plane, so they had to make other arrangements.

Our new aircraft had a couple of minor mechanical issues that needed to be fixed. Boeing officials were very apologetic and tried to make it up to us by giving us free admission to the world-class Museum of Flight, which I was thrilled to visit again. Then they provided lunch at the delivery center while they finished getting the plane ready.

The trip as planned would have been fantastic, but God and Boeing threw in a bonus that made it even sweeter. Three of the 787 test aircraft were at BFI that day sharing the ramp with SWA’s new 737. Two of them were easily visible from the delivery center, and one even made a couple of testhops while we were there. I got to see both takeoffs. It’s a very smooth and surprisingly quiet aircraft. I ate lunch while gazing out the window at one of the test planes and drooling.

Finally our aircraft was ready, N949WN. She was GORGEOUS, and the clouds had burned off to bathe her in bright sunshine. We all took lots of pictures, of course. Just like with a new car, a new aircraft really does have new-plane smell. In our case, it was rich leather. Boeing gave each of us a nice goodie bag with a 737 hat, a Boeing glass, and some chocolates that we were afraid to open in the plane lest we foul it.

We departed around 3pm local time with Jenny and one of the interns in the cockpit having the ride of their lives. Afterward, they found regular seats and let others have the chance to sit in the cockpit. Since this wasn’t a commercial flight, the normal rules about access to the cockpit didn’t apply. She said sitting up front for takeoff was a huge thrill. They departed facing Mount Rainier and got a nice view during climbout. The rest of the flight was nice and smooth. We did our best not to spill anything on the pristine interior while we enjoyed the free ice cream that Boeing provided for the trip home. Upon landing, we parked at the maintenance hanger so our mechanics could check it out. I believe N949WN entered revenue service on Sunday. I hope the passengers enjoy this aircraft as much as we did!

Here are some pictures:

737 Delivery Flight