Southwest Airlines 2011 Annual Report Download - page 22

Operational, Safety, and Health Regulation
Southwest, AirTran, and their third-party maintenance providers are subject to the jurisdiction of the FAA
with respect to their aircraft maintenance and operations, including equipment, ground facilities, dispatch,
communications, flight training personnel, and other matters affecting air safety. The FAA, acting through its
own powers or through the appropriate U.S. Attorney, has the power to bring proceedings for the imposition and
collection of fines for violation of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
To address compliance with its regulations, the FAA requires airlines to obtain, and Southwest and AirTran
have obtained, operating, airworthiness, and other certificates. These certificates are subject to suspension or
revocation for cause. In addition, pursuant to FAA regulations, Southwest and AirTran have established, and the
FAA has approved or accepted, as applicable, Southwest’s and AirTran’s operations specifications and
maintenance programs for their respective aircraft, ranging from frequent routine inspections to major overhauls.
The Company has been working to obtain approval from the FAA of a single operating certificate that would
allow the Company to operate aircraft and perform maintenance operations for both Southwest and AirTran
aircraft.
In December 2011, the DOT and the FAA issued a rule to amend the FAA’s existing flight, duty, and rest
regulations. Among other things, the new rule, which will go into effect in 2014, requires a ten hour minimum
rest period prior to a pilot’s flight duty period, a two-hour increase over the old rules. The new rule also mandates
that a pilot must have an opportunity for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep within the ten hour rest period. Pilots
will also be limited to no more than nine hours of “flight time,” which is considered by the FAA to be any time
an airplane is moving on its own power, even if it is on the ground at an airport. Pilots will also be limited to 28
working days in a month and will be required to be given at least 30 consecutive hours free from duty on a
weekly basis, a 25 percent increase over the current rules.
The Company is subject to various other federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to
occupational safety and health, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Food and Drug
Administration regulations.
Security Regulation
Pursuant to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (“ATSA”), the Transportation Security
Administration (the “TSA”), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for certain
civil aviation security matters. ATSA and subsequent TSA regulations and procedures implementing ATSA
address, among other things, (i) flight deck security; (ii) the use of federal air marshals onboard flights;
(iii) airport perimeter access security; (iv) airline crew security training; (v) security screening of passengers,
baggage, cargo, mail, employees, and vendors; (vi) training and qualifications of security screening personnel,
(vii) provision of passenger data to U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and (viii) background checks. Under
ATSA, substantially all security screeners at airports are federal employees, and significant other elements of
airline and airport security are overseen and performed by federal employees, including federal security
managers, federal law enforcement officers, and federal air marshals. TSA-mandated security procedures can
affect the Company’s operations, costs, and Customer experience. For example, in 2006, the TSA implemented
security measures regulating the types of liquid items that can be carried onboard aircraft. In 2009, the TSA
introduced its Secure Flight program. Secure Flight requires airlines to collect a passenger’s full name (as it
appears on a government-issued ID), date of birth, gender, and Redress Number (if applicable). Airlines must
transmit this information to Secure Flight, which uses the information to perform matching against terrorist
watch lists. After matching passenger information against the watch lists, Secure Flight transmits the matching
results back to airlines. This serves to identify individuals for enhanced security screening and to prevent
individuals on watch lists from boarding an aircraft. It also helps prevent the misidentification of passengers who
have names similar to individuals on watch lists. In 2010, the TSA also implemented enhanced security
procedures as part of its enhanced, multi-layer approach to airport security by employing advanced imaging
technology (full body scans), as well as new physical pat down procedures, at security checkpoints. Such
enhanced security procedures have raised privacy concerns by some air travelers.
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