Southwest Airlines experiencing impact from 'unprecedented' number of aircraft out of service

Southwest Airlines COO Mike Van de Ven stated (19-Feb-2019) the number of the airline's aircraft currently undergoing MRO has resulted in service cancellations, "extremely long" delays and operational impacts during the past week. Mr Van de Ven noted the "unprecedented" number of aircraft out of service on 12-Feb-2019, "just days" after Southwest's last negotiations session with Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), primarily occurred in four maintenance locations, despite no changes in maintenance programmes, leadership, policies or procedures. Mr Van de Ven said the airline is assigning "as much" scheduled maintenance programme work to third party vendors "as possible", in order to decrease the workload for Southwest mechanics. "AMFA has a history of work disruptions", stated Mr Van de Ven, adding the airline will investigate the current disruption. [more - original PR]