A morning chat with airline CEOs
Terry Maxon of the Dallas Morning News moderates a conversation between American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly on the future of U.S. Airlines at the 2011 SABEW Conference.
Terry Maxon, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, moderated the discussion between American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey and Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, which focused on the future of U.S. airlines.
Both Arpey and Kelly described the challenges of navigating their companies through the 2008 oil crisis and later the financial crisis.
And although Southwest Airlines recorded solid profit in 2010, Kelly said the latest fuel crisis is one of the greatest current challenges facing the airline industry.
Arpey agreed.
“If the economy stays on track, that bodes well for the future. The bad news is that we are now faced with another fuel crisis,” Arpey said. “That is the current major issue confronting the industry. We are all very worried about what’s happening in the oil markets.”
Beyond rising fuel costs, journalists were eager to hear Kelly’s insights on the recent Southwest Airlines scare. On April 1 one of Southwest’s Boeing 737 aircraft experienced a fuselage tear that forced an emergency landing.
The airline halted flights to inspect 79 other aircraft in the fleet before returning all but five to the air.
“We are first and foremost concerned about the safety of flight to take care of our customers and our own employees. From that prospective we are very pleased that there were no serious injuries,” Kelly said. “It is not expected. It is not what we want for our customers.”
Kelly would not comment on the costs associated with the fallout from the 737 scare, including current and possible future maintence improvements. He said Southwest Airlines is responsible for the work to keep the aircrafts airworthy, but executives are still waiting for the results of the FAA investigation into the incident.
“As Boeing has said, that particular part of the aircraft there was a failure there that was unanticipated and we need to understand why,” Kelly said. “It was our decision to ground the fleet. Our decision to do inspections.
“While events are rare, I won’t be satisfied until there are no events.”
After a lengthly conversation about Southwest Airlines’ emergency landing, both Kelly and Arpey talked about future innovations in the works for both airlines.
Kelly said Southwest Airlines is making a major investment to equip planes with WiFi capability. Arpey is keeping a close watch on the progression of Boeing’s next aircraft, the 787.
“That airplane will be a remarkable step in terms of technological advancement,” Arpey said. “We have a lot of confidence that Boeing is going to make a great airplane because they have a great track record of doing that.”
