Southwest Airlines is deservedly in financial trouble
In love with bigotry, blacklisting, and bad maintenance
Late last week Southwest Airlines revealed that it is going to cease operations in four airports while simultaneously cutting 2,000 jobs as a result of a $231 million loss in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s CEO, Bob Jordan, attempted to lay the blame for these difficulties on Boeing’s quality control problems, which has not only caused it to delay delivery of 26 planes in Southwest’s most recent order of 46, but has likely driven away customers, since Southwest uses only Boeing planes to simplify the maintenance of its fleet. For example, the article cited this incident and attributed it to Boeing’s troubles:
Earlier this month, an engine cowling on a Southwest operated Boeing 737-800 fell off during take off from Denver airport. Flight 3695 reported the engine cowling “fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap” an FAA spokesperson previously told Newsweek.
Neither the article or Jordan are being entirely truthful or accurate. That engine cowling incident has nothing to do with Boeing, as the plane had been owned by Southwest for a considerable time, which means its maintenance is Southwest’s responsibility, not Boeing’s.
And why might Southwest have maintenance issues? Maybe these maintenance problems exist because the airline has gone all-in for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, creating racial and sex quotas that make race and sex the most important qualifications for many jobs, not skill, knowledge, talent, or experience. Its 2022 DEI-report [pdf] cited these goals:
- Evolving hiring and development practices to support diversity goals, including posting all new, open Leadership positions (Supervisor to Vice President)
- Measuring progress in increasing diversity in Senior Leadership (as compared to July 2020/ Directors and Senior Directors; Senior Director was changed to Managing Director in early 2023)
- Doubling the percentage of racial diversity and increasing gender diversity of our Senior Management Committee by 2025 (as compared to July 2020)
That report then goes on to carefully delineate the race and sex of all its employees, bragging that these statistics allow it to favor in hiring some races over others, as well as women over men, in order to meet its racial and sex quotas. That report also brags about the company’s endorsement of the queer agenda, including issuing “pronoun pins” to all employees.
Not only does this favoritism violate numerous civil rights laws, it guarantees that Southwest will not be hiring the best possible people. Race or sex have nothing to do with maintaining an airplane, and picking people for these irrelevant reasons means you are not picking them for the right reasons.
Personally I have no sympathy at all for Southwest. I used to be a big fan of the company, but that ended in 2020, when it became the first airline to mandate masks — ahead of any federal airline regulations. That decision helped encourage the panic, and made it easier for the government to later step in and impose these absurd regulations across the entire airline industry. Had Southwest resisted imposing mask mandates it might have helped prevent the craziness that followed. Instead, it helped fuel that madness.
From that point I vowed to never give the company another dime, if I could at all help it. So far I’ve kept that vow, a vow made easier to meet because of Southwest’s subsequent anti-free speech actions. It fired a flight attendant because she objected to the use of her union dues to fund pro-abortion protests. The airline and the union thought free speech only applied to those who favored abortions. To both, anyone else was to shut up, or be blackballed. That attendant later won a settlement in court, which Southwest then tried to ignore and was sanctioned by the court for doing so.
As I said, I have no sympathy for Southwest. Until it abandons its endorsement of racial quotas and the queer agenda that are likely impacting the quality of its work force, it deserves to go bankrupt. Why would anyone with any brains put their life in the hands of such a company?
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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In love with bigotry, blacklisting, and bad maintenance
Late last week Southwest Airlines revealed that it is going to cease operations in four airports while simultaneously cutting 2,000 jobs as a result of a $231 million loss in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s CEO, Bob Jordan, attempted to lay the blame for these difficulties on Boeing’s quality control problems, which has not only caused it to delay delivery of 26 planes in Southwest’s most recent order of 46, but has likely driven away customers, since Southwest uses only Boeing planes to simplify the maintenance of its fleet. For example, the article cited this incident and attributed it to Boeing’s troubles:
Earlier this month, an engine cowling on a Southwest operated Boeing 737-800 fell off during take off from Denver airport. Flight 3695 reported the engine cowling “fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap” an FAA spokesperson previously told Newsweek.
Neither the article or Jordan are being entirely truthful or accurate. That engine cowling incident has nothing to do with Boeing, as the plane had been owned by Southwest for a considerable time, which means its maintenance is Southwest’s responsibility, not Boeing’s.
And why might Southwest have maintenance issues? Maybe these maintenance problems exist because the airline has gone all-in for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, creating racial and sex quotas that make race and sex the most important qualifications for many jobs, not skill, knowledge, talent, or experience. Its 2022 DEI-report [pdf] cited these goals:
- Evolving hiring and development practices to support diversity goals, including posting all new, open Leadership positions (Supervisor to Vice President)
- Measuring progress in increasing diversity in Senior Leadership (as compared to July 2020/ Directors and Senior Directors; Senior Director was changed to Managing Director in early 2023)
- Doubling the percentage of racial diversity and increasing gender diversity of our Senior Management Committee by 2025 (as compared to July 2020)
That report then goes on to carefully delineate the race and sex of all its employees, bragging that these statistics allow it to favor in hiring some races over others, as well as women over men, in order to meet its racial and sex quotas. That report also brags about the company’s endorsement of the queer agenda, including issuing “pronoun pins” to all employees.
Not only does this favoritism violate numerous civil rights laws, it guarantees that Southwest will not be hiring the best possible people. Race or sex have nothing to do with maintaining an airplane, and picking people for these irrelevant reasons means you are not picking them for the right reasons.
Personally I have no sympathy at all for Southwest. I used to be a big fan of the company, but that ended in 2020, when it became the first airline to mandate masks — ahead of any federal airline regulations. That decision helped encourage the panic, and made it easier for the government to later step in and impose these absurd regulations across the entire airline industry. Had Southwest resisted imposing mask mandates it might have helped prevent the craziness that followed. Instead, it helped fuel that madness.
From that point I vowed to never give the company another dime, if I could at all help it. So far I’ve kept that vow, a vow made easier to meet because of Southwest’s subsequent anti-free speech actions. It fired a flight attendant because she objected to the use of her union dues to fund pro-abortion protests. The airline and the union thought free speech only applied to those who favored abortions. To both, anyone else was to shut up, or be blackballed. That attendant later won a settlement in court, which Southwest then tried to ignore and was sanctioned by the court for doing so.
As I said, I have no sympathy for Southwest. Until it abandons its endorsement of racial quotas and the queer agenda that are likely impacting the quality of its work force, it deserves to go bankrupt. Why would anyone with any brains put their life in the hands of such a company?
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
DEI Airlines: Take the plunge for the team. Feel good. They do.
” I used to be a big fan of the company, but that ended in 2020, when it became the first airline to mandate masks — . . .”
My relationship with Southwest, verbatim.
In other news–the other whistleblower, Josh Dean of Spirit…is one.
Boeing is being framed–I thing this all actually the work of–a
Antonov Chigurh–*
–OW Robert that hurt!
Oh Robbie, I just wanted to be part of the show wah…
If companies are pursuing affirmative action policies (DEI), which are illegal, then I have no sympathy with them, when (not if) things turn bad.
But my experience of US airlines (apart from Jet Blue) is that customer service is terrible. They hate their customers. Flying across the Atlantic, UK airlines are much better, and don’t even think about comparing with Cathay, Emirates, Singapore. Why are US airlines so poor in customer service? Wasn’t always this way. For example, I flew back out of Orlando last January and used the Delta Lounge, as Virgin use their lounge. Front desk surly, packed and overall experience, food etc, not a patch on Virgin lounges.
America’s airlines DO hate their customers, and their customers hate and despise both them and the TSA. Most people who have any possibility of traveling sans air flight do so. Who would want to be packed into a flying cattle car and treated like a criminal in the process?Flying a U.S. airline today is a truly miserable experience and best avoided whenever possible. If the lot of them go bankrupt, they’ll wait a long time for sympathy from me!
“…its endorsement of … the queer agenda …”
Considering most male flight attendants ARE gay, this kinda makes sense.
Southwest is nothing but a flying cattle car in which you scramble for a far-too-small seat sitting next to some obese woman who has never once passed a Dunkin Donut without picking up a dozen. My strategy in the first years of flying for business was to grab the first aisle seat I could find and then stare at each person coming towards me in my best Hannibal Lecter impersonation – I’ve got fava beans and if you sit next to me your liver is mine. Trust me, that approach worked.
imagine the frustration of living in Denver where Southwest, & equally DEI obsessed United have most of the gates and most all the good flight times. Pick your poison.
After the inexcusable way Southwest treated my family in 2012, I not only never will fly them again, I have been eager to see them put completely out of business.
Richard C. Moeur: If you don’t mind, can you tell us some details about your 2012 bad experience with Southwest?