Piloten von Southwest Airlines verloren 20,000 freie Tage. Das ist nicht das gruseligste Problem

Hullo. Thank you for coming and I know why you're here.

You need one more thing to worry about and you thought this might be the place.

So please take a seat and grab a drink, as this might take a little time. You see, you haven't been listening as well as you should, and you're not alone. 

No, that's not my view. It's the view of Southwest Airlines pilots.

Not so long ago, the pilots' union wrote a letter to their new CEO, Robert Jordan. To try and heap pressure upon him, you understand. Oddly, the letter also emerged in the public sphere because it contained truly concerning information.

The pilots warned that they were tired. They said there had been an increase in errors directly correlated to fatigue. They warned that Southwest's operations were poorly managed.

Da war dieser schlimme Satz: „Anhaltende und absichtliche Mängel in der Verwaltung unseres Netzwerks und der Pilotplanung haben unsere Effizienz zerstört, und jetzt wird sogar die Sicherheit unhaltbar.“

The mere idea of safety being untenable on a plane is the worst idea a customer can hear.

Southwest's pilots surely hoped that their letter would help put so much pressure on Southwest's management that they'd get a new, better and safety-aware — in their view — contract.

Perhaps the letter didn't work well enough. Now the pilots are picketing to heap more public shame on their bosses.

NBC Dallas-Fort Worth angeboten that 1,000 pilots stood at Dallas's Love Field on Tuesday to offer something less than outright adoration for management.

“Summer of LUV,” read one sign. “Delayed. Rescheduled. Cancelled.” That's not quite the context in which you want your brand mnemonic to appear, is it?

“Our pilots have had to address the fatigue issue with management publicly, which is something that we never want to do,” explained the president of the pilots' union, Capt. Casey Murray.

How, though, can the pilots get you to care (even) more? Well, they tried to make their story more personal.

Murray sagte: „Unsere Piloten haben im letzten Jahr fast 20,000 freie Tage verloren, was mehr als 50 Jahre sind, die unsere Piloten verloren haben – unfreiwillig gezwungen, an freien Tagen zu fliegen.“

20,000 days off sounds like a lot. It sounds slightly less when you consider Southwest has around 9,000 pilots. But you're supposed to get the point: “How would you feel if you had to work on your day off? At least twice a year. And in a job where safety really matters.”

Southwest erinnerte, vielleicht unbeabsichtigt, an die verlorenen fünfzig Jahre der Piloten. Die Fluggesellschaft überlegte: „Southwest Airlines respektiert das Recht unserer Mitarbeiter, ihre Meinung zu äußern, und wir erwarten keine Betriebsunterbrechung als Folge dieser einzigen Demonstration. Seit 51 Jahren pflegen wir eine legendäre Südwestkultur, die unsere geschätzten Mitarbeiter ehrt.“

Murray, though, wasn't done.

Er sagte: „Wir haben gesehen, dass unser Unternehmen viele betriebliche Probleme nicht wirklich angegangen ist. Und das schon seit mehreren Jahren.“

The pilots seem to be saying they've been tired for years. Which should make many shiver about flying safely. No Southwest customer wants to worry that their pilot may not be entirely alert in the cockpit.

What's harder for customers to judge is how serious the issue truly is. What's easier is to be utterly miserable at the current flying experience.

There's money at stake here, of course, as well as a certain (level of) principle. And safety is the lever that the pilots are pulling hard.

They have some power. They know they can wield it. They want the public storm to rise and, thankfully for them, bad weather in much of America is certainly assisting customer unrest along the way.

Jedoch müssen auch diese Schlagzeile may offer a touch of balance to the whole Southwest Airlines affair: “Southwest Airlines Raises Guidance and Says Travel Bookings Remain Strong.”

Maybe you're just a pawn in the game, dear passenger.