WN buying some A gates in DEN....

[On Your Six]

It must just be you. Last week we stayed at the same hotel as the Southwest crew and they bought our crew all of our drinks.

Then the next day the Southwest FO was helping the van driver load all the crew bags. That is the big reason I would never want to work for Southwest. I am a pilot and paid to fly only. That is why I will only go to Delta or American Airlines.

Since when does SWA go to Saginaw, MI? That is your favorite layover, right? Get used to it, until you leave for your lav dumping job in Minot.


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[On Your Six]

Yeah, don't worry OYS, I'm sure your right about everything. The folks in Atlanta will stay faithful to the "home town" airline - like they did in Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, and Denver. Lol.... see you in Atlanta.

I'm sure they won't, since you're not a LCC anymore. Your management also got rid of some good things AT had, like XM radio and first class seating. That right there gave DL any business travelers AT used to have. GK also stated ATL would get FEWER flights by SWA compared to previous AT numbers, not greater.

Can you please explain which airline you claim folks left in Dallas? AA carries a heck of a lot more pax than SWA does in Dallas Ft Worth. Den? SWA went up against a weak F9, but now a stronger UAL, who makes 6 times the revenue and 10 times the profit than SWA does, will bring in CAL's 738/739s and smash you. Baltimore??? Who did SWA replace there? How about your recent experience in PHL? USair kicked SWA out of several markets, and AK has pushed SWA of several SEA markets (GEG, BOI, etc). And I don't think SWA has grown much at all in SLC in the past few years. Sounds like those may be some reasons why GK is "concerned.". You should be too.


Happy NEW YEAR!


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[On Your Six]

Riverboat Central, here we come!

Plenty of ATL overnights in the Feb bid pack.

Good, enjoy it. I layover there often and our downtown hotel is fairly nice.


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[On Your Six]

I thought you were joshing, you ain't, there are boatloads.

Good. Just remember, short approaches are about 17 miles, and fly the speeds assigned or you will get sent around in the pattern. Good luck with your 30 min turns.


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[On Your Six]

I don't know why I even respond to your inane rants. I suppose it's like messing with a kid who keeps making the same face and saying the same dumb thing over and over. It's amusing in a way.

To answer your question, sure, you DO get a second chance if you go through bankruptcy. However, you DON'T then get to crow about how much better your company is doing when the reason you are there is because you skipped out on your bills and obligations. Especially when comparing to a company who never did that, and still always makes a profit. Know whut I mean, Vern?

As far as "[our] subsidiary," maybe you haven't heard: as the inherited leases expire, we're replacing them with new planes we're buying. And as to "not treating them well," that's a matter of opinion, to which you're not entitled (mainly because you never know what you're talking about). There
are folks on both sides who weren't happy, and folks on both sides who were. Both sides voted it in, and we're both moving on, and working together to make SWA stronger. Don't YOU forget that. One of the main reasons bought Airtran was to grow into Atlanta. You know, so we can come visit YOU, Sixer. You keep worrying about our culture, and next thing you know, our culture will be right beside you in Atlanta, taking a little bite out of your profit's backside.

Bubba

What a classic response. First off, many companies, not just airlines, have gone BK and have come back stronger and better. It's unfortunate that any airline or even a person goes BK, but they don't have to live in a hole and hide from the likes of you. If your company or you yourself are next in BK, then you too can start over and succeed again. There is a limit to the number of times you can file BK, so that should make you happy. And quit blaming employees for things that may not have been their fault. You are so cocky. I wasn't even here when it happened.

Next, I have friends at both SWA and AT. Your SLI proceeding wasn't classified, stop treating it like that. Is it true some "retired" management came in and "talked" to the AT MEC after the second offer? If so, that is ridiculous. An arbitrator should have decided what was fair, not a stern talk. That won't be forgotten by most AT pilots, my friends included, and you are blind not to see that. Maybe you use "stern talk" to your family members so they fall in line? People love that.

And thanks for taking away a TRUE lower cost carrier, AT, from ATL. That helps all of us. It will be fun to see YOU in ATL, I don't think anyone is afraid at all. Please come in just like you did in PHL, and you got your rear handed to you. I already see you guys here in DTW, and it doesn't seem that impressive either. Good luck.


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[redflyer65]

Can you please explain which airline you claim folks left in Dallas? AA carries a heck of a lot more pax than SWA does in Dallas Ft Worth. Den? SWA went up against a weak F9, but now a stronger UAL, who makes 6 times the revenue and 10 times the profit than SWA does

Happy NEW YEAR!


Godspeed!


The OYSter

OYS,

You do realize that we carry the most domestic passengers in the country, right? More than you, more than AA, more than anyone.

3500 flights a day, buy yet you are still clueless to how this industry works.

Thanks again for the entertainment.

RF

 

[vikesfanIV]

Oys, are you a complete moron or just a partial one?

I'm not even sure how you come up with your stupid insults. Your numbers are so far out of whack I wonder if you passed 4th grade math. You can check these #'s yourself on any financial website... Bloomberg, CNBC, yahoo finance, just to name a few.

Wall Street Consensus Estimates for Full Fiscal Year 2011 (to be reported in the next few weeks)

UAL - $37.1 billion revenue, LUV (Swa & Airtran combined) - $16.0 billion


I find your idiotic posts amusing but I recommend trying to at least pull some realistic #'s out of your a$$ to give yourself some hope of credibility. 6x revenue? Really?? Please tell me you're more intelligent than that if you're actually flying people around.

Cheers.

I'm sure they won't, since you're not a LCC anymore. Your management also got rid of some good things AT had, like XM radio and first class seating. That right there gave DL any business travelers AT used to have. GK also stated ATL would get FEWER flights by SWA compared to previous AT numbers, not greater.

Can you please explain which airline you claim folks left in Dallas? AA carries a heck of a lot more pax than SWA does in Dallas Ft Worth. Den? SWA went up against a weak F9, but now a stronger UAL, who makes 6 times the revenue and 10 times the profit than SWA does, will bring in CAL's 738/739s and smash you. Baltimore??? Who did SWA replace there? How about your recent experience in PHL? USair kicked SWA out of several markets, and AK has pushed SWA of several SEA markets (GEG, BOI, etc). And I don't think SWA has grown much at all in SLC in the past few years. Sounds like those may be some reasons why GK is "concerned.". You should be too.


Happy NEW YEAR!


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[N1atEcon]

Hey why you slamming Minot? I thought you were a B1 guy? Only Buff guys can speak of Minot with such disdain.

 

[On Your Six]

Oh, sorry, 6 times your PROFIT. And about twice your revenue. Sorry Kramer.

I'm not even sure how you come up with your stupid insults. Your numbers are so far out of whack I wonder if you passed 4th grade math. You can check these #'s yourself on any financial website... Bloomberg, CNBC, yahoo finance, just to name a few.

Wall Street Consensus Estimates for Full Fiscal Year 2011 (to be reported in the next few weeks)

UAL - $37.1 billion revenue, LUV (Swa & Airtran combined) - $16.0 billion


I find your idiotic posts amusing but I recommend trying to at least pull some realistic #'s out of your a$$ to give yourself some hope of credibility. 6x revenue? Really?? Please tell me you're more intelligent than that if you're actually flying people around.

Cheers.

Rivals Invade Southwest's Air Space

United, Delta, U.S. Airways and, Most Likely, American Are Emerging as Giant, Lower-Cost Carriers





By Susan Carey WSJ



Southwest Co. is still known as a discount carrier.


But as Chief Executive Gary Kelly acknowledged last week in a memo that is still reverberating among investors, employees and airline rivals, the discount part is waning.

Southwest Airlines is facing increased competition. Pictured, passengers at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., airport.




Mr. Kelly's missive to 38,000 employees warned that if cross-town rival American Airlines emerges from bankruptcy-court protection, it will have substantially lower costs than before and will join the other remade "legacy" carriers that are giving Southwest a run for its money in ways they never did before.

On Tuesday, Southwest delivered a more upbeat signal, announcing a $19 billion order for 208 Boeing Co. 737s. But those new planes, too, are a reflection of Mr. Kelly's efforts to head off challenges from larger but slimmer rivals. Rather than expanding Southwest's fleet, they will replace less fuel-efficient 737s, leading to savings that are central to Southwest's strategy to remain a low-cost carrier.

If American parent AMR Corp. does "emerge from bankruptcy, as I believe they will, they will join the new United, new Delta and new US Airways as giant, lower-cost airlines," Mr. Kelly wrote.

"They are, collectively, much more formidable competition than their predecessors."


With its historical edge on costs, Southwest was able to undercut competitors' fares and stimulate new business by winning first-time fliers and luring others from cars and buses, a phenomenon that came to be known as the "Southwest effect."

But with new competition from leaner, larger airlines and from such low-cost carriers as Jetblue and Spirit Inc., "our advantage is cut in half," Mr. Kelly said in the memo.

The memo also reminded employees that Southwest's labor rates are the highest in the domestic industry and said that the airline's enemy "is our own cost creep, our own legacy-like productivity, and our own inefficiencies."

Michael Linenberg of Deutsche Bank said on an investor call last week that in his time following Southwest, Mr. Kelly's statement that Southwest can no longer stimulate new traffic is "one of the most profound statements we have heard about its business model." He suggested that to increase revenue Southwest may have to add international routes, charge passengers for assigned seating, operate red-eye overnight flights, and buy more types of aircraft to better match supply and demand. (Unlike most of its peers, Southwest is strictly domestic, doesn't assign seats and has flown only Boeing 737s.)

But Duane Pfennigwerth, an Evercore Partners analyst, had a different take. He said Southwest still has a cost advantage over rivals and a strong balance sheet free of expensive pension liabilities. He ascribed the Kelly memo to "realistic table-setting in advance of the next round of labor negotiations."

"I think he probably is trying to manage expectations," agreed Charles Cerf, president of the Transport Workers Union local that represents 7,800 ground workers who have been in contract talks since the summer. "They seem to overstate negative financial news at the beginning of negotiations."

Southwest declined to make Mr. Kelly available for an interview. But his note made clear that the company intends to preserve pay rates and benefits for the foreseeable future. Southwest has never furloughed an employee or requested concessions from labor.

Bob Jordan, a Southwest executive who heads AirTran Airways, which Southwest bought in May, said Mr. Kelly sends at least one employee memo a year, and "has done a number of rally-the-troops memos around...high fares and competition." He denied the memo was a warning shot to labor.

Over the past decade, as its legacy competitors collectively lost billions amid bankruptcy reorganizations, Southwest expanded rapidly, earning a total of $4.5 billion. Now the leading transporter of domestic passengers, its capacity in 2010 was two-thirds greater than it was a decade earlier, and it has moved into new airports, including Denver, Philadelphia and New York's LaGuardia. Its May acquisition of fellow discounter AirTran has brought it to the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.

But after years of outearning premerger Delta and United, both international carriers, Southwest this year is expected to earn $213 million, a quarter of Delta's anticipated profit and a sixth of United Continental's.






Thanks for the correction Kramer. 6 times your profit. Eat that.


Godspeed!


The OYSter

 

[On Your Six]

OYS,

You do realize that we carry the most domestic passengers in the country, right? More than you, more than AA, more than anyone.

3500 flights a day, buy yet you are still clueless to how this industry works.

Thanks again for the entertainment.

RF

And you aren't the most profitable anymore, even with the most domesitc traffic. Your dumb People's Court TV commercials are scaring away premium traffic. Then take away XM radio and a first class option, and someone else here may figure out who really is clueless. Thanks again for getting rid of the lower cost airline Airtran.


Godspeed!


The OYSter