other airlines want to do, are these planes being taxed too much? is that why we re seeing cracks in certain aircraft? it s not a matter of the airplane being taxed too much where the stresses are induced. the fact that southwest airlines flies multiple trips on an airplane more so than maybe a long haul carrier flying a larger airplane where you may have one takeoff and landing every four hours versus southwest that has three. the fact of the matter here is that the acceleration of that schedule prompts the airlines to have to do more inspections on a more periodic basis than some of the long haul carriers. they will change these inspection process. we find the stress are occurring in areas. we fine cracks in areas that weren t previously examined in a comprehensive way so it will change the inspection process. but you have to remember that all airplanes have wear and tear going on every single day because of that pressurization
inspections, the mechanics look very closely at the skin. where these cracks have developed are in the lap joint. these are subsurface microscopic cracks where you need have a more comprehensive program such as ultrasound or x-ray. that wasn t required in this lap joint. so the inspection was fulfilled, however we re now fining out that these failure modes, these stress cracks were in an area that weren t preplanned or pre-identified by the manufacturer so the inspection program didn t need to be that comprehensive up until now. let s talk about teenage of this plane. we know it s 15 years old and because southwest flies a high volume of short flights really a business model that is coveted by other air agencies it s experienced around 39,000 takeoff and landing cycles. while the coveted business model of what southwest is doing financially might be something