Tell you what Dan, I'll pitch a fastball on your behalf. HAL gets the A321 NEOs up and rolling in what, 2017? You watch. HAL will either codeshare up the wazoo or merge with Virgin America / JetBlue (you already codeshare with both, correct?); adding that to the widebody service and cargo on the A330 will equal Cash Cash CASH!!! If SWA enters that fray it will become a bloodbath. But you know what? The loser will be..... Alaska. HAL will maintain it's higher-end customer base with free food and first class, while SWA will maintain it's dirt-cheapskate customer base and do well, too. Leaving Alaska with..... well I don't know but they have deep pockets and are not dumb, so will probably fall back or die trying. I wish them good luck. Maybe HAL will have an opportunity to buy Alaska and REALLY give SWA hell!!
Well you are correct (and not just because you supported my post). I had a conversation with the high level former SWA exec that is at HA now. His take SWA coming to Hawaii would be less of an issue to HA (If they did, a big if) than the other carriers. I think his comment was that there was other much lower hanging fruit in the market. AK certainly would be more vulnerable than us. Whatever happens in the west coast market, HA has positioned itself that our International routes are maturing (and our biggest money maker), we own Inter-Island and that's not even remotely vulnerable and the west coast will be what's it's gong to be. Unless someone wants to suffer some pretty heavy losses they are not going to take market share from us. Clearly SWA is not in a position to compete on service!
You are also spot on about the cargo.. that's morphing into a huge revenue generator for us to the west coast as well as International.