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Herb Has His Own Time Zone

sheaser
Frequent Flyer B
[asset|aid=240|format=image|formatter=asset|title=RBRiPodLogoSmall.gif|width=180|height=179|resizable=true|align=right]Did you know that Southwest Airlines has its own time zone? Well we share it with everyone else who lives and works in Central Time, but we have our own name for it. We call it Herb Time and it is what our Flight Crews use. On every flight, every day, every flight log book—Herb Time. And apparently, we are unique in the industry!

Not too many people had the desire to take a job at a startup airline back in 1971, but the ones who did made this airline what it is today. Willie Wilson is one of those employees as he was only the 16th hired. On this episode of Red Belly Radio, Willie talks about the origin of “Herb Time,” a term that we now use daily and we learn about one of the people who got us off the ground. (Literally—Willie started as mechanic.)

It seems other airlines schedule in the local time zones so a flight from Detroit to Chicago leaving at 0900 would land at 0900. It is then up to the crew to know that those two cities are one time zone apart and it is a one-hour flight. Our system would show that 0900 arrival in Chicago with an 0800 departure because the crews always stay in Herb Time.

Time management for an airline, as you might imagine, is complex and we probably wouldn’t even think about it if we hadn’t started flying to El Paso in 1977. We would probably just still be using Central Time for everything.