Leadership had so much confidence, in fact, that Gary, Tom, and Chief Operations Officer Mike Van de Ven publicly announced to Employees via a live webcast from a Company Spirit Party at a Southern California theme park on October 11, 2017 –Southwest intended to serve Hawaii.Ĭlad in Aloha shirts on a live webcast, Mike Van de Ven and Gary Kelly reveal that Southwest is finally going to Hawaii. Southwest Leadership acted quickly, organizing an offsite briefing in 2017 to discuss potential solutions. By the meeting’s close, the ETOPS Team had the full faith and support of the Company behind it. By chipping away at the puzzle, one marker stain after another, they devised a method of updating existing systems, rather than purchasing new technology. It was an incredible collaboration. Lots of ideas. They sequestered themselves with nothing but a whiteboard, markers, and their wits to guide the way. The Team decided to tackle this high-tech initiative in decidedly old-school fashion. To start the planning with safety and efficiency top of mind, President Tom Nealon put together a cross-functional Team of flight planning and tech specialists, led by Senior Director of Regulatory Operations for Network Operations Control Steve Christl. Southwest had seriously considered applying for ETOPS authorization back in 20, but the push was ultimately halted due to the amount of work already underway to complete the acquisition of AirTran Airways. Despite all the initial research and work that had been completed, there was little doubt that years of added work would be required, especially when it came to flight planning, for Southwest to begin an ETOPS authorization process. To earn its wings to fly to Hawaii, however, Southwest would need to attain ETOPS (Extended Operations) authorization from the FAA by thoroughly proving its proposed procedures.ĮTOPS authorization is a set of standards to prepare a carrier for a multitude of extremely unlikely scenarios while flying routes that take a plane more than 60 minutes away from an airport capable of supporting a fully loaded commercial airliner. With this authorization, Southwest would be permitted to fly up to 180 minutes away from the nearest adequate airport. Polling-especially in California, where Southwest was committed to holding on to its impressive market share-consistently ranked Hawaii as one of Southwest Customers’ most-desired destinations. Some Southwest Employees dreamed about using travel privileges to vacation there. Others hoped to move to the islands to be ambassadors for the famous Southwest Hospitality. The business rationale for expansion to the state of Hawaii was rock solid. For Gary, it was less a question of if Southwest would get to Hawaii, but rather when it would do so and how it could do so in the most strategic way possible.
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