Airtran drops 5 cities, does SWA know what to do? Could it be....?

[Lear70]

4 months

Not quite.

54 days for each 737. 15 days for the 717's. The 737's will take longer because of the removal of one lav and the addition of a galley in its place. Many 737's will also add the equipment necessary for extended overwater ops while they are in, including ceiling-mounted rafts, HF and Selcal equipment, etc. Some aircraft will take a little longer as they will get C checks while they're in.

This is old news. We always knew we were going to lose quite a few cities out of the deal; SWA management was very clear about it. One of the main reasons is that the ramp / counter agents at Southwest do not allow ANY outsourcing, and many of those cities we only serve a few times a week or seasonally. Therefore the cost of making them all Southwest employees full-time and keeping service year-round, especially if the yields won't support it, makes it cost-prohibitive.

Also, as was mentioned, some of the city pairings currently flown by 737's will be served by 717's next year as those 737's are removed from service for reconfiguring. Therefore there won't be a large reduction in flying on the 717, but there will be SOME; line values are expected to decrease to close to guarantee during the transition, varying somewhat by how fast they take pilots over the partition.

In short... nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Skybus]

Actually Lear the ramp contract DOES allow outsourcing of staff under certain conditions/size. I do not know what exactly the constraints are but for this reason I thought we would be keeping some of these smaller cities and perhaps adding some of our own based on GK own words. That was before the economy headed south again and fuel prices headed north. I am sure there will be more to come.

 

[jonjuan]

Actually Lear the ramp contract DOES allow outsourcing of staff under certain conditions/size. I do not know what exactly the constraints are but for this reason I thought we would be keeping some of these smaller cities and perhaps adding some of our own based on GK own words. That was before the economy headed south again and fuel prices headed north. I am sure there will be more to come.

Hmmmmmmm, someone's not telling the tRuth then. Lear said ANY. Who's lying?

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

At least Moline, IL (Quad Cities) wasn't on the list!!!

 

[OK3]

Lear is not lying, but he has information that is a little dated. The ground employees old contract didn't allow for any outsourcing. Their latest contract allows for stations with fewer than some floor number of flights to be staffed by contract employees. I am not sure what the floor number is.

Blue B, sorry but I think ending service to Moline was announced previously.

 

[gobyebye]

moline was on the last round of cuts, wasn't it?

 

[EWR_FO]

Have you guys gotten any indication of when your pass travel programs will be combined? I am assuming after that happens buying a ZED pass on WN will mean it can be used on Airtran also, does anyone know if that assumption is right or wrong?

 

[scoreboardII]

Not quite.

. One of the main reasons is that the ramp / counter agents at Southwest do not allow ANY outsourcing, and many of those cities we only serve a few times a week or seasonally. .

Pile on I know, but not true, used to be that way, but latest ramp contract allows SWA to outsource all locations with fewer than 18 operations per day. Not sure if an operation is an arrival and departure or one or the other.

 

[goahead]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Southwest-Airlines-AirTran-prnews-4247671299.html?x=0&l=1

Maybe you guys missed this out today.....

 

[scoreboardII]

Lets see, SwA buys AT, AT drops Moline and gets Cancun, Mexico city, PR, SWA gets HOU-RDU. Sounds fair. YGBFSM.

 

[dicko]

Lets see, SwA buys AT, AT drops Moline and gets Cancun, Mexico city, PR, SWA gets HOU-RDU. Sounds fair. YGBFSM.

You forgot one ...... AirTran gets Cabo San Lucas as well. imp:

 

[Muppets]

As a Dulles commuter, I have never seen more than 60 pax on the flight to the ATL. Im surprised the Dulles station lasted this long.

 

[humveedriver]

Lets see, SwA buys AT, AT drops Moline and gets Cancun, Mexico city, PR, SWA gets HOU-RDU. Sounds fair. YGBFSM.

No worries. All those int'l flights will be flown by pilots on the SWA Master Seniority List ;-)

 

[Max Powers]

Lets see, SwA buys AT, AT drops Moline and gets Cancun, Mexico city, PR, SWA gets HOU-RDU. Sounds fair. YGBFSM.

ME ME ME.....Scoreboard you cease to amaze me. Here I will make you a deal I'll fly every crap leg you have on one condition: You give back the 33% seniority that you got from me. Deal?

 

[GhettoBeechjet]

ME ME ME.....Scoreboard you cease to amaze me. Here I will make you a deal I'll fly every crap leg you have on one condition: You give back the 33% seniority that you got from me. Deal?

Only if I get to keep my current relative seniority in the WN 737 and get to hang on to my domicile.