Southwest Airlines plans to fold its maintenance systems into one to improve operational reliability.
The Dallas-based carrier will likely announce by year-end its choice of provider for a uniform MRO system, says chief operating officer Mike Van de Ven.
Currently, the airline uses several different applications to manage its maintenance records, he says.
“They are fairly disparate and don’t talk to one another,” Van de Ven tells Flightglobal on the sidelines of the airline’s media day in Houston.
Having a uniform maintenance system is one among several initiatives that the airline has rolled out to improve operational reliability.
On-time performance was a challenge for the airline in late 2013 after it made changes to its schedule, but now appears to have recovered. In the first eight months of this year, the airline reported an almost 77.8% on-time performance rate for its flights.
The airline recently announced it had selected GE Aviation's Flight Efficiency Analytics system for its fleet of almost 700 Boeing 737s. The system will help to monitor the aircraft's health to improve operational performance and is separate from the airline's plan to fold its maintenance systems into one, says Van de Ven.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
