The Hidden Cost of Low Cost Air Travel

[EyeInTheSky]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/16/13759/445

The Hidden Cost of Low Cost Air Travel
By HoppyCalif
From: Economics Table
Preliminary information about the Southwest Airlines accident at Chicago Midway indicates unprofessional flying by the cockpit crew. They landed in questionable weather, on a barely long enough runway, using non approved techniques, poorly applied.

Southwest is a favorite airline for many people, including me, for their low fares and good service, but those low fares always cause me to wonder how they do it, considering the number of airlines going bankrupt with higher fares.
Flight crew salaries are a major part of the operating cost for all airlines. It is well known that Southwest pays lower salaries than their competitors. Another way for an airline to cut operating costs is to hire less experienced flight crews and skimp on training. This accident provide some ammunition for assuming that Southwest does that too.

Modern passenger jets, such as this model of the 737 have many automatic features to make landings safer, from auto-landing systems to auto braking systems. News stories indicate that Southwest has chosen not to use those features, presumably to save the cost of maintenance and training.

I think a good question for all of us to ask ourselves is do we prefer to pay the minimum to travel or do we prefer to know that the crew flying our trip has been well trained, is paid well enough to attract well qualified people, and is flying an airplane in the safest possible manner, using all of the safety features of that airplane.

I am not a pilot, but I am a former maintenance employee of another airline.



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[FWAAA]

What absolute BS.

WN's pilots make more money than any other major domestic airline 737 pilots.

Their mechanics are the highest paid, according to the many mechanics who post to USAviation.com.

Even if the MDW accident is shown to be completely the result of flight crew mistakes, the broad-brush indictment of Low-Cost air travel makes the author look rather foolish.

AA is high cost, and poor flight crew decisions have resulted in death. Lotsa death. Same thing at other airlines, both high-cost and low-cost carriers.

 

[Some Clown]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/16/13759/445

The Hidden Cost of Low Cost Air Travel
By HoppyCalif
From: Economics Table

"Flight crew salaries are a major part of the operating cost for all airlines. It is well known that Southwest pays lower salaries than their competitors. Another way for an airline to cut operating costs is to hire less experienced flight crews and skimp on training."

Well as for our pilots, they make MORE than any other airline operating SIMILAR equipment. As for Mechanics, I know our top of scale is $37+. per hour. What about the other PAX airlines? Its quite a bit lower for everyone else. Not gloating, just posting facts. So throw those theories out the window!

As for operating the aircraft without using some of the automation. Well that's a throw back to when we operated the -200 and to keep fleet commonality in addition to KEEPING our pilots IN THE LOOP.

Now I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I think I would much rather fly on an airline whose pilots routinely FLY the airplane rather than WATCH George do all the work.

As for trying to lay blame for this horrible accident at this stage is just asinine. Give the NTSB and other agencies time and a FACTUAL conclusion will be found rather than reporters just trying to sell newspapers or gain viewers

 

[Barbell]

Interesting article Eye, thanks for sharing. Frankly, this HoppyCalif guy sounds like a real peach. And his conclusions sound like hogwash to me. :down:

Any US/HP 737 pilots want to comment?

 

[jack mama]

The MDW accident is most likely going to be attributed to the short runway combined with the lack of barrier device because the runway's end was so close to the road.

It could be said that WN may have been pushing the edge by trying to operate at a airport marginally within the safety requirements.

Pilot pay is not the issue...but LCC's cutting too many corners might be!

 

[vc10]

http://enplaned.blogspot.com/2005/12/unmit...ed-garbage.html

 

[Atlantic]

Using the auto brakes on a 737 is as easy as 1-2-3-MAX. That's the slection on the switch. Now I can see not using them going into airports with 9-10 thousand runways, but Midway? #3 to start. With that weather! Lawyers are going to all over that.

 

[flyin2low]

Aren't the Auto-Brake systems disconnected / inop as per SWA management?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Excerpted from the 12/15/05 NTSB update on the MDW accident:

The pilots stated that everything was normal through the point of touchdown. Approaching the airport, weather was of concern to them, and they listened to the ATIS (the recorded weather update) four times during the latter portion of the flight. They stated that they agreed with the dispatcher's assessment of the conditions for landing on runway 31C and backed up that assessment by inputting the numbers into the on-board laptop computer tool.

The computer confirmed that the landing would be within the operational parameters of the airplane and Southwest's procedures, they said. Autobrakes were set on MAX, and they activated after a "firm" touchdown. The flying pilot (Captain) stated that he could not get the reverse thrust levers out of the stowed position. The first officer, after several seconds, noticed that the thrust reversers were not deployed and activated the reversers without a problem. At some point, the Captain noticed that the airplane was not decelerating normally and applied maximum braking manually. The first officer also became aware of the poor braking effectiveness, moved his seat farther forward, and also applied maximum braking. They stated that they continued to apply maximum pressure to the brakes as the airplane went straight off the end of the runway and came to a stop.

Jim