I am back from my Columbus Day weekend trip to south Florida flying nonstop IND-FLL and back on AirTran Airways soon to become Southwest and promised to evaluate the structure of the airline from a passenger's and employee's perspective to several enthused airline buffs. The $1.6 Billion acquisition comes in several phases and the people on top have some heavy decisions to make as the branding combines in a few months time. On my way out of Indianapolis on Saturday, TRS1120 and several other outbounds from the new terminal building were each being pushed to leave a good 10 to 15 minutes early, and airport-wide announcements were made to encourage customers to make it down to their gate to ultimately arrive at the other end ahead of schedule. It is important to note that IND is not used as a hub but instead solely as an originating point to eight nonstop cities. The weather was not a factor anywhere the planes were going to or coming from, so this must be their usual standard operating procedure for keeping up through the day.
I found a group of pilots discussing flight structuring in front of the departure moniters and one responded that he will be going to FLL when asked. He said he's exclusively been on the 737 and past experience was mostly in Desert Storm in B-52 bombers, I later determined this was the first officer and he would be given pilot in command for this leg. Pilots at almost any airline love to get airborn early, but "on time" passengers and other loading factors can often keep this from happening. In this case, once we were seated and pushed back the flight attendents actually did not start their safety briefing until a solid 3 minutes into the taxi phase getting close to the end of the runway. The cabin crew's hiccup here led us to sit at the end for another extra minute and a half with the engines running before the flight crew was given the okay to take the runway. Our departure ended up being 5 minutes early and arrival 15 minutes early at the very high cruise of 41,000 feet moving us along.
As a passenger, many would expect a "no frills" experience on any LCC today, but AirTran's advertising division held a great contest last year to get votes casted on the most desired in-flight service on their aircraft. The winning idea was the availability of wi-fi, which you may actually be using to read this and 100% of the mainline fleet is now equipped while Continental and Delta have only a limited rollout at this point. In addition to that, there is an audio out at every seat with complementary Sirius XM radio throughout the flight when the PA is not being used. Though there is no buy on board menu for indulgent meal options, some pretzels, soft drinks and a later offer for a refill are included free of charge and, to my liking; a little ways into the flight rather than immediately after the first 10,000 feet. On the way back the same system was taken, leading one to assume they'll always give you a second offering and that don't want any more of your money unless you want an adult beverage regardless of the flight length. Our cabin crew on the return even used some comedy in the end of flight briefing after landing in Indianapolis about 10 minutes early on Tuesday, Southwest has often been known to have comedic flight announcements.
The powerful executives at Southwest have some time to weigh their options as to what to adopt and what to send adrift. They have already pledged to keep bags flying free. As for the fleet, someone has written on wikipedia that the 717 fleet will be adopted by SWA, but that could be speculation as it's clear the 717 aircraft did not get as many operators as Boeing had hoped, and less than 10 airlines worldwide have it in service, meaning maintenance is not very streamlined and will cost more comparitavely than with the popular 737. No word yet on whether Southwest/AirTran will back out of its ordering of larger 737-800 aircraft which will be the highest capacity plane for either airline. Side note, in the route structure Southwest has been all-domestic, but AirTran right now is at five destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico and somehow does okay flying to Tunica, Mississippi: a town south of Memphis with about 1,100 people! It goes without saying most of the enplanements are only really there for the casino experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment