Southwest grounds 43 planes, is my flight affected?

Southwest is grounding 41 43 of its planes in the wake of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposing the largest fine on a carrier in the FAA’s history. The $10.2-million civil penalty fine on its back is for missing safety inspections on planes and flying them anyway. Southwest, which says it will appeal, issued this response to the FAA “Letter of Penalty.” So far they’ve suspended three employees while they investigate.

I’m supposed to get on Southwest flight 230 Thursday from Las Vegas (LAS) to Chicago (MDW). The planes that will be taken off the lineup represent about 8% of Southwest’s fleet. So, should we be concerned about how this will affect current itineraries? I’m concerned and took steps (detailed below) to find out about delays or changes.

Have you noticed anything odd about flying with SWA, or Southwest planes latetly?

Checking my flight status: The first thing I did was check in with FlightStats.com to see if my flight was delayed. Right now there was a 16-minute delay — but that didn’t bother me. I’m concerned with the flight getting canceled. Next, I set up a flight alert so that they could let me know if there are any more changes.

Finally, I called Southwest to ask them if the grounding of planes would affect my itinerary. The wait time to get through was suggested at three-to-five minutes. A representative did pick up in three minutes. I asked him if the grounding of the planes would affect my schedule. He immediately said no and asked if I was referring to what I’d heard on the news. I said yes, if you’re taking away 8% of your fleet, won’t there be some delays or canceled flights? He asked for my confirmation number and checked both my outbound and return flight. “Nope, you’re good to go.”

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger

[Image: Southwest.com]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 1:32 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.