Southwest Airlines' Hawaii Plans Stalled by Government Shutdown

Southwest Airlines' year-long effort to launch flights to Hawaii has stalled as needed Federal Aviation Administration personnel are furloughed during the ongoing government shutdown, the company told employees Monday.Southwest has been working for months to create plans and procedures for extended flights over water, a certification known as ETOPS that the Dallas-based carrier and it's short-haul heavy network hadn't needed until now.Southwest said its ready for the "next phases" of the process that includes demonstrating those new procedures in tabletop exercises and validation flights. But there's a big problem -- the FAA workers who oversee the certification process have been furloughed along with hundreds of thousands of other government workers, putting Southwest's Hawaii ambitions on hold.  Continue reading...

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