Airlines super sensitive to mechanical issues after hole in Southwest jet, more delays noticed

CLEVELAND - There are all sorts of ways to stay up to date on flight delays. You can give the airline or aggregator (places like Orbitz) your phone number and they’ll alert you to delays before you arrive at the airport. However, nothing can prepare you for the delays you should expect if you’re traveling in the next few weeks.

Since the Southwest jet developed a hole in mid-flight, it seems airlines have been canceling flights and re-routing passengers. They appear to be super sensitive to problems with the aircraft.

During a recent trip, I saw two planes full of people leave the aircraft before it took off. The first plane was headed to Memphis, and the passengers were re-routed. It was a big inconvenience for those passengers because they had to stand in a long line to get their new itinerary. At least they were given food vouchers. At first, I thought it was just a unique situation. A few hours later, it happened to me.

On my second flight of the day, we boarded the plane and were waiting and waiting for the door to close. The crew then told us the plane had a mechanical problem. After mechanics inspected the plane, the crew told us the thermometer in the cargo area was alerting the crew that the baggage area was too hot. The crew told us it was obviously a faulty thermometer because it wasn’t hot outside, so there was no way it could be too hot in the baggage area.

The crew made it seem like an unimportant repair. However, they had to make it. It makes you wonder if they would have made that fix and delayed the entire flight two hours if there hadn’t been a hole in a Southwest jet just a week prior. As much as I’ve traveled, it seemed odd that I saw two plane loads of people disembark and heard of other cancellations that day.

They finally decided to put us all on another plane rather than wait for the repair. There are new rules that prevent airlines from keeping you on the tarmac for hours and hours. So, they make decisions faster now.

Kudos to the airline for getting us a new plane and not re-routing us. I suppose they have extra planes these days considering there are far fewer flights than there used to be. Still, it was handled smoothly and Delta even sent a survey asking how the delay was handled.

At least some airlines still care about their customers and know they are critical to their bottom line. Just be prepared the next time you head to the airport. Your flight may be on time until you board.