Originally Posted by
hillrider
WN (Southwest) schedules their 737s (a bit bigger than M80s) for 25 minute (and at times 30) turns and has better on-time performance, but their (unionized) workforce is far more productive and they can probably shave a few minutes by assigning a spot on the boarding queue as opposed to assigning a seat.
WN also pads their flight times significantly to achieve the on-time records. But most of this is contract-related. WN's crews get paid by the flight, not by the hour. They are incentivized to get you to your destination as quickly as possible. That's why: WN's planes taxi faster, make up time on late flights, etc.
That being said, WN does not make 25 minute turn times on full flights. Thus, they pad the flight time slightly to make up for the lack of turn time. I've been on numerous WN flights that departed 15 minutes late (need extre turn time) and magically arrived 10 minutes EARLY.