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Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

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Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#521

Post by bobthepanda »

hef19898 wrote: post #330
bobthepanda wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, as an example, when the 737MAX was grounded, many airlines had already started taking delivery of them and were operating them. Southwest was the largest recipient at that time. Southwest had plenty of older 737s as well, but the new MAX planes both fly farther and have more seats, so while the grounding was in effect Southwest was essentially paying to keep the things on the ground while scrambling to reconfig…

Single AC fleets mean an airline has somewhat of a single point of failure. If the issue at hand is caused by that point of failure, sure recovery will be harder. In most other cases it makes it actually easier, at least on paper. No need to get crews to certain planes, just a crew to a plane, as every crew is certified on any plane.

The utilization rate is so high that specific planes and crew are needed in specific times and places.

If plane going from A -> B is late it cannot become flight B -> C. If crew for this plane are stuck in the ground long enough, they have to wait til the next day to fly as they‘re only allowed to be awake and work for so long.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#522

Post by listenallyall »

xyzzy21 wrote: post #451
doctorwho42 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is large due to corporations taking on lean-business models from MBAs over the last decade+. When a business runs lean, it becomes more fragile to disruptions. Unfortunately due to our economic system, there is a semi-regular boon-bust cycle, so if it wasn't COVID, it would have been something else that kicks the stool out from under the legs of these corporations. In the past this wasn't as big as an issue becaus…

As an MBA with BSEE/MSEE, this is exactly correct. Too many take the degree and training as a blindly followed cookbook rather than just "ideas to think about and think of trying". It SHOULD BE the latter!! The "religion" of profit maximization and cost minimization has a price - it's NOT GLOBALLY OPTIMAL OVER TIME for the survival of the organization (profits, anti-fragility, etc.) nor for the larger system of a nat…

Your anti-MBA, anti-profit-maximization rant misses one thing: Southwest is the only major US airline with zero bag fees (for the first 2), no business or first-class cabin, no seat upgrade charges, and until recently, the only one with no change fees (other airlines backed off change fees during the current pandemic). It doesn't chase major international routes, partner with 3rd party booking engines, or fly overnight/redeyes. LUV has consistently, for 40+ years, optimized its culture over profits.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#523

Post by cratermoon »

ecf wrote: post #231
cratermoon wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That number is probably derived from BMI. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268...

America is a fat nation, there is absolutely no number trickery involved. Visiting Italy for a week highlighted exactly how bad it is here.

That's very subjective and anecdotal, and no doubt reflects a huge selection bias. Why not compare with Kuwait, which has a similar rate of so-called "obesity", but has a lower rate of COVID-19 than many US states?

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#524

Post by Zigurd »

toss1 wrote: post #512
Zigurd wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naive finance works that way. Sophisticated finance prices-in downside risk.

Yes, but with finance based on transitory MBA executive suites job-hopping around the corporate world, the right play is to price in the risk during your term and a bit after, so the 10-year risk is ignored, but if you can strip everything out of redundancy, product development, etc., the numbers will look better for a while, you get your bonus package, and move to the next opportunity/victim. When things have been b…

I was not disagreeing. The biggest problems come where finance is not sophisticated and management is seduced by cost cutting. Those often go hand in hand.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#525

Post by nemothekid »

syshum wrote: post #480
nemothekid wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However there is no circumstance in which I’d support the government requiring a medical procedure to be performed on someone without their consent. You do realize vaccine mandates aren’t new? The chicken pox vaccine has been mandates for all children attending public schools for over 20 years now. It has been enormously successful in eradicated what used to be a very common disease.

Come back to me when you have a mandate for new vaccine with less than a decade safety record required for adults to simply exist in society The child vaccine requirement analogy is flawed for at-least 3 reasons 1. We have all kinds of things we apply to children we do not to adults. They are children after all. For example kids are banned from smoking, but adults can. 2. It only applies if attend a public school, pa…

>1. We have all kinds of things we apply to children we do not to adults. They are children after all. For example kids are banned from smoking, but adults can.

So the government is allowed to be "your master, your parent, or king" of children but not for adults? Be consistent.

>2. It only applies if attend a public school, parents can opt out by sending their child to a religious school, private school, or home school.

What's the argument here? If you don't want to get vaxxed, then don't use public resources. Not sure how this is a flawed argument.

>3. You assume people that oppose government mandates for COVID support government mandates for children.

Anyone who is 100% ok with mandating vaccines for children but not for adults is simply not being logically consistent. This is the same "point" as (1).

>do you believe the government is your master, your parent, or king. Or do you believe in personal freedom and autonomy

I'm sorry, you are right. I forgot that America was anarchist state. I hope you will join me in fighting for me rights to operate my vehicle whenever I want. Why should the government tell me I'm not allowed to drive when I've had a couple beers? Is the government my parent? I know I can drive well when drunk and the other guys who have killed others were just idiots. Why does the government infringe on my autonomy to drive by forcing me to get a license? Why do I have to be put into a government database? I paid for my car after all. What's next? Will Biden require me to get a license to operate my toaster?

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#526

Post by r3trohack3r »

vdqtp3 wrote: post #498
r3trohack3r wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if its not growing, then it is viewed as failing I’ve only seen this in wealth generation instruments. Outside of those, I haven’t seen much of the “culture“ you’re referring to. In that framing, I think it makes sense and is anything but absurd. The company is dual purpose at this point: part original mission (airline) part communal investment. Being a great airline that is comfortable with its current market…

Take a look at earnings reports...a company that doesn't grow from last quarter is considered a failure. A company that grows but doesn't hit goals from last quarter is considered a failure.

> take a look at earning reports

Aye, I think that’s the point I’m making. Earning reports are for public companies. The company is part of society’s communal wealth if it’s publishing a quarterly earning report. Check out the companies not posting quarterly earning reports - because they aren’t publicly traded - and not building towards a public offering; I don’t think you’d find this same “culture.”

In your scenarios, the public communally purchased shares of future growth, priced in against the stated goals - and the public’s confidence the company would reach those goals.

What other outcome would you expect? If you think this is the market being irrational, you -personally- can buy at the “failure” price. If you’re right, you’ll do well over a long time horizon.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#527

Post by supertrope »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #228

Even in a location with a high vaccination rate, I know that a lot of local stores are having issues not just finding staffing but 'COVID' cases are apparently very high. There seems to be a lot of reluctance to get the vaccine among the young, at-will employed despite the downside of being out of work if they test positive.

The media has reported for a year and a half that the old (65+) are at high risk and the young are at lowest risk for severe COVID-19. Young people have absorbed that message. That’s also on top of younger people being less responsive to health messaging in general and taking more risks.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#528

Post by ceejayoz »

tomohawk wrote: post #342
downandout wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most likely explanation is here [1]. Pilots (and apparently some air traffic controllers) are doing a sickout to protest vaccine mandates, presumably to make the powers that be understand just how difficult they can make things for the country if they proceed with intended mass firings. But the sickout is technically illegal, so nobody will acknowledge it. That is why you won't see a clear explanation of this inc…

Agree. Have family members in the pilot's union and in the air traffic control union. The White House thinks they can force unilateral changes to the union contracts. If the unions admitted to what was going on, the White House would have more legal authority to intervene more directly with the unions.

> The White House thinks they can force unilateral changes to the union contracts.

Well, yes. Contracts can't override Federal regulation. "Sign this contract exempting you from OHSA protections" won't (generally) fly, right?

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#529

Post by TechBro8615 »

Arrath wrote: post #508
TechBro8615 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to be a low-cost carrier but they're pretty average now in terms of cost. They've been replaced at the lower-end by Spirit.

It took one trip for Spirit to go onto my personal No Fly list. While Southwest remains my favorite airline.

I took my first and last Spirit flight ~7 years ago to fly cross-country. It honestly felt at some points like the plane was going to fall out of the sky.

Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

#530

Post by grillvogel »

shartacct wrote: post #460
throwaway224466 wrote: post #78

Southwest's pilot union sued the company over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate a few days ago[1], this is clearly related. The media isn't reporting this because the media owners don't want the masses hearing about others beginning to revolt against the draconian and illogical vaccine mandates (i.e. Why wouldn't a naturally derived antibody test be allowed in place of a vaccine, considering that's the whole point of gett…

Stop crying and get vaccinated, or find a way to make money without endangering other people.

compelling argument
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