Southwest is currently evolving its business model, given the carrier’s lagging financial performance, plus pressure from activist investors. We know some of the major changes that the airline plans to make, like adding preferred and extra legroom seating, and introducing redeye flights.
Continue reading: Southwest’s Optimistic Plan To Reduce Turn Times, Speed Up Boarding
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The main, and probably only, reason why Southwest has much faster turns than the completion is that bags fly free on Southwest. Full stop.
People with carry-ons to stow and pick up at the other end slow down boarding and deplaning tremendously, especially the old ladies on a leisure trip who would have rather checked their bags if not for the predatory fee.
Southwest has already been an OTP disaster later in the day with their already tight turns.
The key issue to the delays…..fake wheelchair passengers…..anytime you see an aircraft go through PHX or LAS. It’s a wheelchair parade that takes a lot of resources to get down the jetbridge. I would implement the assigned seating first….then assess the turn times.
As soon as Southwest implements assigned seating and there are 50 fewer wheelchair passengers boarding each flight, turn times should improve exponentially.
No free bags on Ryanair and their turn time is 25 minutes. Boarding front and rear seems to be the solution.
If every plane wraps its day 25-minutes early, that is a lot of hours the company can save over a year in personnel costs.
With that said, yes make the tech improvements, but I fail to see how fast music on the jet bridge speeds up boarding. The bottle neck is the narrow aisle on their ever increasing capacity planes.
They used to have great boarding times as they were flying significantly less passengers and concepts like rear stairs (which you can still find at places like BUR) were more common during the era were not every gate was a jet bridge.
The biggest thing that WN has in it's favor for quicker turns at this point, compared to the competition, is the fact they still let folks check bags for free which means fewer people slowing down the process putting bags in bins and then having to backtrack to seats. I think assigned seating will likely make this issue worse if anything in terms of congestion while boarding.
We've been flying southwest frequently due to the companion pass. Last night was the first time we had an on time departure/arrival. They seem to have a lot of issues getting crews to the aircraft, often delayed on arriving flights.
Charging for bags makes zero sense unless they will reduce airfares because the AFs are higher than competitors so the bags are kind of already priced in. Seat selection is a necessity.
I really am not convinced that open seating helps with faster turn times. In my experience on Southwest, on any remotely full flight, once everyone is boarded, we then spend 15 minutes while the flight attendants try to arrange seat swaps in order to seat families with children and couples together. Lots of announcements looking for volunteers. Assigned seating would just make the whole thing much more efficient.
It's easy to turn a plane if you put minimal effort into cleaning it. I like SW but their planes are dirty AF. Consistently.
The only thing slowing down boarding besides preboards and wheelchairs is carry on bags! Most airlines have strict rules on amount and sizes allowed and actually enforce it before you get to board. Southwest used to do 10 minute turns back in the day before roller bags.
True statement because Southwest refuses to have cleaners like every other airline. $$
We've been flying Southwest fairly often and have never seen any delays due to seat swaps or heard anything about volunteers.
I think boarding isn't a problem as much as deplanning. Some rows get up and move off the plane quickly and others its like they have no clue what is going on, where their luggage is on the plane, etc. We were in row 17 last night and it seemed like forever to get off the plane.
A few months ago we flew SWA out of Long Beach, where they board and deplane via the front and the back. It was eye opening how quickly a 737-700 can empty out and reload that way, with the only real slow down waiting for a couple of wheelchairs (there is a ramp in the front, stairs are used in the rear).
Frontier achieved a 51 minute turn with assigned seating and while operating A321neos in a dense seating configuration, so Southwest should be able to achieve 44 minutes with their 737 fleet. The key to Frontier & Spirit is limiting the amount of carry on bags. I disagree with ULCC for charging for everything, but I actually think it makes sense for Southwest to discourage carry on bags if they are keeping 2 free checked bags.
"Back in the day ...." SW did 10 MINUTE!! turns. It first flew in the early 70's with 3 737's, couldn't afford one of them, were getting ready to gut the schedule, employees went to Lamar Muse, who has never been given proper credit for launching SW, "We can maintain the schedule if we do 10-minute turns." And for years they did! And try to imagine today's employees doing that to save the airline!
Paul Singer is not going to be impressed with 44 minute turns. He has lots of money and wants to make a big score. He’s betting he knows who’s going to win the election and what that will mean for future industry consolidation. Now what airline would fit with Southwest? What airline would Southwest’s employees want to work for if they were forced to merge with another carrier? What airline could easily obtain the financing needed to pull off such a deal? What airline just added even more service out of Austin and what city did Southwest just drastically reduce service? Assigned seats… 44 minute turns…these are just a smoke screen. The stage is being set for a much bigger change.
I worked for Southwest Airlines back in the day for 26 years and we had 10 minute turns not 25 minute turns because it was a 50 minute flight between San Antonio Houston and Dallas and we did 10 minute turns all the time in the 80s!
Carry-on bags are the biggest factor. That's why boarding AND deplaning are so much quicker in Japan and some other Asian countries, where most passengers check their bags (including carry-on bags). WN could easily achieve their target turnaround time if it put some limit on carry-ons. Not only it has the most generous checked bag policy, but it also has the most generous (in terms of size limit) carry-on policy.
The disconnect between corporate and front line employees.
Credits to the Wallstreet leeches who brought you TWA.
Elliott, as a matter of fact, actually put money into TWA during Icahn era.
SWA is the new TWA.
All changes are positive they say.
If Southwest devises their new boarding process properly (ie, such that they prioritize efficiency over elites and extra legroom buy ups needing to feel special) they probably can accomplish this. If you have ever boarded an aircraft in Japan, you know that if to rigidly stick to the back to front, window to aisle boarding method, which means business and extra legroom seats board last, you can board a dense widebody shockingly fast.
The only way to speed up turn times are number one not allow bigger carry ons (or charge to bring them on) and two cut down on the fake wheelchairs (and the ten people that board with each wheelchair) by requiring a doctor's order. Otherwise, with a full load it's impossible. Unless the gate boards wheelchairs early which then defeats the idea of quicker allotted turn times.
This writer does not have a grasp on the potential savings. Over 3000 flights perday, if 5 minutes were saved on each, that amount of daily time could easily equate to many more aircraft in the schedule. On the other hand, assigned seating will likely slow down everything.
IIRC, the SW jets in the 70's & 80's were did not carry as many passengers as today. Also, did not have as many "Jesus Jetway" and wheelchair crowd as today. On my last two Southwest flights, I got hit the "reserved seating" BS as well. Not a big fan of assigned seating, but SW brought this on themselves. Could have resolved the issue with a simple announce of, "Please take the first seat available, no seats are reserved." But management turned a blind eye!!
As for the number of turn arounds that are projected, realize the clock starts anew each day. You can squeeze in another flight or two, but that's the limit unless you do red eye flights across the fleet. WN will be flying half empty jets in the middle of the night just to justify an obscure metric. Don't forget the ground crew that will be getting OT waiting for the jet to arrive at 4 AM.
Also, if the turnarounds are too tight (which WN experimented with years ago), the whole system falls apart with a snow storm or hurricane like Milton which will be visiting Florida this coming Wednesday. Another item to consider, has WN really gotten its act together assigning crew members to flights in adverse weather conditions? Time will tell.
As related to me by a college professor, "Be careful of false prophets (ie: efficiency experts), for their advise only work in a perfect world!!"
The idea that music in the jet bridge makes us go faster is funny. The only reason I'm ever slow on the jet bridge is because there's a bottleneck of people boarding the plane.