Southwest likely to weather bad news

— -- Two high-profile events in a week that call into question Southwest Airlines' luv ability to properly maintain its 520-plane fleet are putting the longtime industry darling to the test.

BrandIndex, which tracks consumers' attitudes toward 1,025 companies on a daily basis, reports that Southwest's "buzz score" fell 23 points in a week, from 22% on March 5 — before news broke about Southwest's failure to conduct mandatory inspections of the planes for possible metal fatigue cracks — to -1% on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, Southwest grounded 38 of its planes to redo inspection for a different set of possible fatigue cracks.

Ted Marzilli, BrandIndex's senior vice president, says that -1% score on Tuesday was the lowest buzz score Southwest has recorded since tracking began last June. The buzz score, he said, measures how many of its survey respondents have positively interpreted recent news about a company, minus those who interpreted it negatively. BrandIndex surveys about 5,000 Americans each day, selected randomly from a pool of more than 2 million who've signed up to participate in the Internet surveys.

Some travelers have been spooked by the Southwest news.

One of them is Allen Crockett, a telecom sales executive from Raleigh, N.C., who describes himself as a "die-hard Executive Platinum flier with American Airlines amr for years." He recently decided to try Southwest in light of its new Business Select fares that give top-fare-paying passengers first choice of seats on its planes. But now, Crockett says, "I doubt you'll see me on a Southwest flight any time soon."

But Marzilli says Southwest's overall reputation will mitigate the short-term damage.

BrandIndex also tracks what it calls "brand health" by scoring the companies it tracks in six categories: quality, value, corporate reputation, satisfaction, willingness to recommend, and overall image. Southwest is one of the top-ranking companies, in any industry, in brand health, Marzilli says. Its score typically is more than double that of the next closest airlines, American and British Airways.

Bobby Keenom, a sales executive from Meeker, Okla., said he has "no safety concerns with Southwest. I fly Southwest every week and will continue to do so." Rather, he questions the FAA's oversight of airline maintenance. "Who allowed these inspections to be missed?" he asked.

Brett Palmer, a software trainer and frequent flier from Clearwater, Fla., said he is taking a cautious but hopeful approach. "I am monitoring the story," he says. "I certainly love flying with them and will probably continue to fly with them providing that their flights are safe. I think that in the days to follow we will learn more. "

Contributing: Marilyn Adams