May 18--Anxiety levels are high in airports due to the long security lines, but "not very many" Southwest Airlines customers are missing their flights, the carrier's chief executive said Wednesday.
Nonetheless, Southwest is asking some workers to help manage security lines by taking steps such as calling out flights that are leaving soon and moving those passengers to the front of the line.
Southwest also is trying to speed up the process by which travelers can apply for TSA Pre-Check, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said after his company's annual shareholder meeting in Chicago.
Details were sketchy, but Kelly said efforts to speed the process could involve helping to defray the costs to apply for TSA Pre-Check.
Southwest fan Martin Peiser said he dreads planning his next vacation.
Long airport security lines? Nope. It's the labor negotiations at Southwest that worry the Chicago resident.
"I hate to make vacation plans," Peiser told Kelly on Wednesday.
As the Dallas-based airline held its meeting at the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel on South Michigan Avenue, across the street hundreds of Southwest pilots protested. The airline and the pilots, represented by the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association, are in contract negotiations.
Kelly, a lifelong Texan and 30-year Southwest veteran, tried to assure Peiser, who has been a Southwest stockholder for about 20 years and owns 300 shares.
"You should feel very confident you can make" flight plans with Southwest, Kelly said.
The company, started 45 years ago next month, has had only one strike in its history, he added. It was a mechanics' strike decades ago.
A second shareholder expressed concern that seven employee groups were currently in collective-bargaining negotiations with the airline. About four out of five Southwest workers are unionized.
Kelly responded that the airline has never had a furlough, layoff or pay cut, and gave raises even during the recession. But he said Southwest faces the toughest competition that it has in decades, with bankruptcy a distant memory for traditional carriers and with discount airlines fighting for market share. That makes it hard to offer fares that are among the lowest in the industry, he said.
Southwest offers currently on the table would provide better benefits and pay that's among the highest in the industry, but the airline is seeking changes in work rules.
"They are complex negotiations," Kelly said, noting that sometimes emotions have entered the discussion.
Sam Mann was among the Southwest pilots protesting on South Michigan Avenue.
He has been at the airline for almost two years.
"We've been without a contract now for four years, in a time during record profits," Mann said.
byerak@tribpub.com
