A day's work for a Southwest 737

[TXaviator]

Gotta keep em flying to make money these days.

this has always been SW's plan for making money!....and it appears to work like a generally well oiled machine

 

[mrivc211]

Seriously.

Theyve been doing it that way for probably as long as you've been alive.

 

[mrivc211]

Compare this to us when we land at O'Hare. Us: "Ops this is Mercury XXXX we're on the ground."

ORD Ops: "Hey there...you're gate's occupied until an hour (or more) from now"

Us: "Faaaantastic"

We go and sit on a pad somewhere on the airport for that hour (or often more) with the APU running. Finally get clearance to the gate, taxi another 20 mins, stop short of the gate because it is a ghost town...no one there to guide us in. We gripe to ops some more, and eventually some tired looking rampers come casually strolling out, looking at us angrily. Not their fault...they're probably doing twice the work they were a few years ago. We stop at the gate and there is no gate agent there to drive the jetway up. We gripe to ops some more and after another 10 minutes a gate agent comes hustling down, out of breath. We leave the APU on since we dont see the ground pwr hooked up, I go down and ask them about it, and it doesn't work at most of the gates. We deplane, load the next group, it starts to snow and we call for deice, and are advised that we're number 15 for deice. After another hour and a half, a single deice truck pulls up, again with a very exhausted looking crew to spray us off. We finally push, taxi for 20 mins, get in line, and finally depart, a good 4+ hours after we landed. Outstation turns, on the other hand, usually go pretty smoothly.

This is the price we pay for the old hub and spoke business model with too much traffic and the thought that cutting some of these crucial infrastructure jobs (ground crew, gate agents, etc) at hub airports saves the company money. It just hurts them in the end.

United is terrible at ground handling in ORD. We do our own in DEN and flights run VERY smooth. I don't know why we don't do ORD. Although recently its been a bit better with a combined 30% pull back in traffic from AA,US,UAL, and others.

 

[SmoothLanderJ]

Planning and preparation. I think my record was 22 minutes in MCO with a full off, full on 737-700. 20 minutes before the plane gets to the gate, you get a load sheet, so you know how much is coming off the plane. You've already got most of your outbound bags sitting at the gate already, so you're able to pre-plan how to load it. Set up empty baggage carts so you've got enough to offload. Meet the plane when it comes to the gate, and have the ground power cable down and stretched across the parking line. When the plane stops, plug the cable in, and they can shut down the engines and never have to start the APU. As soon as #2 stops, pop the cargo bin doors and pull the belt loaders up. Off load bags, put bags on. While the ramp is doing that, provisioning has pulled up a truck in the rear and a truck in the front to service the galleys. Customer service has already opened the main cabin door, and they've got the people up top ready to go. Leave the front bin door open for last minute bags that won't fit in the overhead, or in the case of MCO a LOT of strollers. Close the front bin about 5 minutes from departure time, clear the flight crew to start the APU, yank the ground power, close the cabin door, pull the jetbridge back, and push her out.

If the plane isn't full, 25 minute turns are WELL doable. If it's full, you just have to have your planning down to a science. Even then, it's not that hard for people that are used to it.

Dang Kell, look like you still have that down pat! I have a friend that works at MCO on the Ramp for Southwest, his stories are similar.

 

[Douglas]

and you didn't turn it into the TSA?

 

[JumpWake]

Compare this to us when we land at O'Hare. Us: "Ops this is Mercury XXXX we're on the ground."

ORD Ops: "Hey there...you're gate's occupied until an hour (or more) from now"

Us: "Faaaantastic"

We go and sit on a pad somewhere on the airport for that hour (or often more) with the APU running. Finally get clearance to the gate, taxi another 20 mins, stop short of the gate because it is a ghost town...no one there to guide us in. We gripe to ops some more, and eventually some tired looking rampers come casually strolling out, looking at us angrily. Not their fault...they're probably doing twice the work they were a few years ago. We stop at the gate and there is no gate agent there to drive the jetway up. We gripe to ops some more and after another 10 minutes a gate agent comes hustling down, out of breath. We leave the APU on since we dont see the ground pwr hooked up, I go down and ask them about it, and it doesn't work at most of the gates. We deplane, load the next group, it starts to snow and we call for deice, and are advised that we're number 15 for deice. After another hour and a half, a single deice truck pulls up, again with a very exhausted looking crew to spray us off. We finally push, taxi for 20 mins, get in line, and finally depart, a good 4+ hours after we landed. Outstation turns, on the other hand, usually go pretty smoothly.

This is the price we pay for the old hub and spoke business model with too much traffic and the thought that cutting some of these crucial infrastructure jobs (ground crew, gate agents, etc) at hub airports saves the company money. It just hurts them in the end.

And you wonder why United lost $5b last year...lol

 

[kellwolf]

Dang Kell, look like you still have that down pat! I have a friend that works at MCO on the Ramp for Southwest, his stories are similar.

Did it for 3 years. It kinda sticks with ya. Makes my current job frustrating since I can look around and see 8 ways to improve the operation at a glance, but no one wants to hear the input.

How long has your friend been on the ramp in MCO? I just left back in 04, so I might know him.

 

[SmoothLanderJ]

Did it for 3 years. It kinda sticks with ya. Makes my current job frustrating since I can look around and see 8 ways to improve the operation at a glance, but no one wants to hear the input.

How long has your friend been on the ramp in MCO? I just left back in 04, so I might know him.

Hmm, I think he's been there for a few years at least. I can ask him though.

 

[N826AW]

Aircraft routing is a fun job. My buddy was a router for US Airways until they moved the position to PIT. I watched him setup routing guides for the next day and was amazed at how much work goes into it.

He would get a report on say Saturday morning that shows a/c 826 has a deferred MEL that needs to be taken care of in LAX on Sunday night. But that airplane will RON in BWI on Saturday. So he would need to route the aircraft from BWI through the system into LAX for it's maintenance visit. Multiply that for an airline that has 300+ aircraft and it can get complicated.

But it's pretty cool when you coordinate with the PHX gate manager to have the Eagles and Cardinals A319s in the same city, parked next to each other on a Sunday.

 

[JEP]

Aircraft routing is a fun job. My buddy was a router for US Airways until they moved the position to PIT. I watched him setup routing guides for the next day and was amazed at how much work goes into it.

He would get a report on say Saturday morning that shows a/c 826 has a deferred MEL that needs to be taken care of in LAX on Sunday night. But that airplane will RON in BWI on Saturday. So he would need to route the aircraft from BWI through the system into LAX for it's maintenance visit. Multiply that for an airline that has 300+ aircraft and it can get complicated.

But it's pretty cool when you coordinate with the PHX gate manager to have the Eagles and Cardinals A319s in the same city, parked next to each other on a Sunday.

I rode that one home from NJC.....

 

[wrxpilot]

EVERY SWA flight I have been on, look out the window and it looks like a NASCAR pit crew moving with the motivation that they have to turn that plane or the race will be lost. In the background there is often a smoking BBQ they can return to as soon as the job is done. And the workers, well they are actually smiling.

I flew them this past week (PHX - BUR R/T) and was pretty impressed. They were early in both times, pleasant, and overall a great experience.