Southwest 1st Day at LGA a failure

[FlyChicaga]

A couple things:

SWA has maximum taxi speeds published in their FOM. 30 kts straightaway, 20 kts in a turn. I have jumpseated on SWA a LOT, and I've never seen anyone going 40+ knots on a taxiway. Their pilots have actually always impressed me with their professionalism and positive attitudes.

As for padded block times, uh, who cares? A customer sees a scheduled departure and arrival time on their ticket, and expects you to operate in that window. If you build in time for expected taxi delays, you are HELPING the customer. Not cheating.

So much haterade.

 

[KLB]

As for padded block times, uh, who cares? A customer sees a scheduled departure and arrival time on their ticket, and expects you to operate in that window. If you build in time for expected taxi delays, you are HELPING the customer. Not cheating.

So much haterade.

Exactly! One of the important aspects of this business (any business for that matter) is doing what you're saying you're going to do and delivering the product as advertised. Whats the use in having those tightly scheduled block times when you hardly ever meet them? It actually makes SWA look even better when they get their passengers to the gates earlier due to that "padded block time"! It sounds like smart business to me!