Southwest’s saying no to outsourcing praised as ‘prudent’
The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) praised Southwest Airlines for reversing its surprise plans to outsource aircraft structural repairs to El Salvador, saying the decision was “prudent†because it would have caused even deeper scrutiny about its recent performance.
“Once corporate travel managers and individual consumers are fully knowledgeable about the increasing scope and risks associated with outsourcing as well as an utterly failed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight program, they will likely curtail air travel and otherwise shift their contracts and bookings to those carriers committed to continuous expansion of safety margins,†said BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell.
The problem according to BTC, is not an airline one per se; it is a culturally dysfunctional FAA that has long ago lost its regulatory and oversight bearings, said BTC.
“The Southwest debacle is merely a symptom of a grave and systemic illness at the FAA that indicts the entire system where ‘Exhibit A’ is FAA administrators referring to the airlines as their ‘customers,’†said BTC.
According to BTC, the US Congress now finds itself at the intersection of a failed FAA; a misguided airline industry cost-cutting practice; and the passenger. Congress should take action but it faces a leadership crisis, says BTC.
Bloomberg News apparently first reported Southwest’s decision to outsource that was later reversed.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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