Southwest Airlines has selected IFS as their enterprise maintenance management standard to maximize operational effectiveness while ensuring aircraft reliability and availability. IFS is currently operating throughout the airline's almost 730-strong fleet of Boeing 737-800, 737-700, and 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Southwest Airlines, the most significant domestic airline in the United States by enplanements and serving over 100 destinations, has embarked on an attempt to consolidate numerous outdated maintenance and compliance systems into a single solution. This solution enables Southwest to maintain a laser-like focus on its quality and compliance standards while upgrading its already industry-leading procedures.
Southwest maintenance employees now have access to the information they need to simplify configuration control and compliance management procedures via the IFS solution, which is now live. Additionally, IFS's insights are assisting in driving efficiency via the transformation and automation of processes that include a mobile user experience. For example, Southwest performed an end-to-end evaluation and refinement of its procedures as part of its MRO digital transformation to find opportunities for increased technical operations optimization and encourage a more digital style of working and a shift away from paper. Process digitalization also benefits compliance by enabling real-time validation at the maintenance point.
Southwest joins a list of industry giants, including Air France-KLM Group, China Airlines, LATAM Airlines, and Qantas.
"Effectively operating and delivering a fleet of safe and reliable aircraft is our utmost priority, and this starts with maintenance. IFS gives us the peace of mind and control we need to maximize the airtime of our fleet and deliver what is important to our customers - on-time flights and a great travel experience. The value of IFS does not stop at aircraft maintenance - the solution's open architecture means we have embedded it and made it an integral component of our enterprise-wide IT ecosystem. With careful planning and preparation, we are proud to have successfully undertaken the largest single MRO system migration in the history of our industry."
Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President, Technical Operations, Landon Nitschke
IFS President, Aerospace and Defense, Scott Helmer added, "Southwest is an innovator among the world's airlines, and this milestone achievement speaks to the company's ambition and commitment to excellence. Throughout this project, IFS demonstrated an ability to handle the scale and volumetric of the world's largest airlines and was subjected to load testing that simulated a fleet of 1,000 aircraft. I am delighted that IFS's commitment to this industry is acknowledged with Southwest's choice; it is now well-positioned to continue its industry leadership in delivering world-class moments of services for its customers."
Southwest has introduced extensive and purpose-built airline maintenance capability into IFS Cloud by deploying IFS for aviation maintenance.