Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines prides itself on keeping the passenger informed. Whether in the boarding area, inflight, or waiting for your bags in baggage claim, they want the passengers to know what they know. It may not be the news the passengers were hoping for, but as soon as Southwest inflight crew know something, they want the passengers to be aware of it too. Southwest Airlines do not like to keep our passengers in the dark.

In situations where the departure airport has nice weather but the destination weather is threatening to delay or divert, Southwest Airlines always let the passengers know before departure what we are up against:

The weather may go down at our destination (below landing minimums).

We have extra gas so we can hold if necessary and wait out the weather.

If that doesn't work, we have a good weather alternate and plenty of gas to get there. Once there, we can quickly re-fuel and get back in the game if necessary.

Armed with this information, the passengers know the aircraft carrier they have chosen may have to hold, go-around, or divert. They can make plans accordingly. Once, There was a flight from Midland, Texas, to Dallas, and a line of thunderstorms was planned to roll though Dallas about the arrival time. The pilot pre-briefed the passengers on the ground about the delays en route, as well as his idea of how things might unfold. At that time, the aircraft had seatback telephones on the plane. One of the passengers happened to be the president of major oil company, on his way to a very important meeting. With the pilot's advance play-by-play explanation of what was most likely to come; a running account of what was actually happening; and the final word that they had been cleared to Love Field after only a short delay, the oil company president was able to call his chauffeur and keep his company appraised about whether or not he was going to make his meeting. He made it and sent the pilot a very nice thank-you letter which pretty much validated that passengers thirst for the truth in honest updates, not varnished, over-optimistic guesses. As the Pilot said: "As a passenger, I expect the truth in reasonably frequent updates. And my passengers get nothing less."

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