Tue, Mar 18, 2008
Also Shelves Plan To Send Work To El Salvador
The Southwest Airlines maintenance
and inspection saga will never be confused with a soap opera. No
soap opera moves this fast.
Just since March 6, Southwest faced a $10 million fine...
responded defiantly... conducted an internal maintenance audit...
met with the FAA... and more humbly announced it was looking
into maintenance "ambiguities."
Now, the Wall Street Journal reports Southwest is reconsidering
the pace at which it retires older planes.
Southwest is pursuing major structural upgrades to dozens of its
oldest Boeing 737 jets in an effort intended to reduce long-term
maintenance expenses. Through November 2007, Southwest counted 515
aircraft in its fleet, including 211 Classic models and the balance
in recently-added -700 NextGen planes. Its average fleet age is 9.6
years.
"That is a fleet-management issue that we will continue to
evaluate," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said recently, noting the cost
of recurring structural repairs and inspections to its fleet of
737-300 and -500 Classic models "is a factor."
The final number of older planes retired "will depend on the
success of that [refurbishment] program," Kelly added.
In related news, Southwest has also reportedly postponed plans
to outsource heavy-maintenance work to a shop in El Salvador -- a
move an airline spokeswoman told Bloomberg was made to avoid
complications related to the inspection process. It should also win
favor, at least for now, with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal
Association... which had slammed the plan over safety concerns, and
fears the shift would mean even more work sent overseas.
Southwest currently sends 60 percent of its maintenance and
overhaul work to other facilities, but all of those are in the
United States.
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