Southwest Enhances Safety with New Cockpit Alert Technology

Published: 19 Jun 2025

Author: Precedence Research

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Southwest Airlines is set to resolve loopholes in Boeing 737 planes with cutting-edge technology presented to improve safety on runways. According to the announcement made by Honeywell Aerospace Technology, the Honeywell enhanced Ground proximity warning systems, like SmartRunway and SmartLanding, have already been activated on more than 700 Southwest aircraft. 

Honeywell stated, “SmartRunway and SmartLanding help increase flight crew situational awareness during taxi, take-off, and landing with aural and visual alerts and promote stabilized approaches. "It proactively notifies pilots when they are moving too fast, flying too high, or are directed toward the wrong runway, helping to break the chain of events that may lead to runway accidents.” 

This move was essential for the utmost safety of the passengers and crew members on the plane. The decision was made effective due to an incident that happened back in March; the southwest airline aircraft was trying to take off from a taxiway, bypassing the runway for take-off at Orlando International Airport. After witnessing the event, the flight was canceled in Florida. The incident occurred some days ago when a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that sun glare could have been an initiating trouble factor in a near miss involving a Southwest Airlines Jet at Chicago Midway International Airport in February. 

As per the statement by Jim Currier, president and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace technologies, today's pilots are increasingly distracted and facing challenges running planes due to changing weather and dense airplane traffic in particular spaces, forcing them to make quick decisions that may be impulsive and wrong during take-off and landing. However, with increasing challenges, technologies have also evolved to the extent that data can be easily transferred in real-time, like real-time communication between two systems. By deploying smart runway and smart landing software across its fleet, Southwest Airlines has highlighted passenger safety as its priority.