Just thought I'd pass along a little information that I got from a co-worker yesterday.
He was in Dallas, TX for a company banquet for employees with 15, 20 25, 30 and 35 years with the company.
For a little background info, I work for Southwest Airlines in Phoenix,AZ, as an aircraft mechanic.
There are presentations during this banquet, and this year there was one from our ' Pass Bureau', it's kind of like a company sponsered travel agency for interline agreements between airlines and other travel related companies.
Well, the advice that was given, was to avoid air travel during the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years holidays.
With the reduction of flights and available seats, starting just after the Labor Day holiday the first week of September, the best that can be said is this is going to be a horrible experience for everyone involved, and this is before you add the wild card of major winter storms to add to the chaos.
It was stated that with the published reduction of capacity of the industry, that it is the equivalent of having a major airline going out of business.
If there are major disruptions due to weather, you may have to wait a WEEK or two, not a few days for this to get sorted out and things back on normal schedule !!!
And this doesn't even address the possibility of a major air carrier in the US ceasing operations due to financial problems that are rampant in the airline industry today.
