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Date: 2024-11-08 03:34 pm (UTC)A few things about Southwest's operations drive greater delay propagation than with other airlines. For one, they run a more decentralized, point-to-point routing map vs. other carriers' more hub-and-spoke model. Two, they run more short routes than others, often having one aircraft fly 5 routes a day. Three, and perhaps most importantly, they build their route scheduling on "fast turns" from one flight to the next.
These fast turns made more sense when the airline's planes went out less full, but with more passengers to pack in now ("higher load factors" in industry speak), and with the addition of the 737 MAX 8 configuration that accommodates 30-ish more passengers than other models, the turn times are frequently unrealistic.
When one flight arrives late due to any of a number of factors, there's little to no slack in the downstream schedule to make up for it. And because the turn times are unrealistic for current conditions, the delays tend to snowball throughout the day as each aircraft is even more behind schedule on each of its subsequent routes.