For the 12 month period ending 3/31/12, SWA pulled a 6.1% ROIC with an economic fuel cost of $3.30/gallon. Doing the reverse math provided by the data in the Q1 2012 earnings release, here are the fuel prices that would have been necessary to pull 10% and 15% ROIC:
$3.03/gallon => 10% ROIC
$2.57/gallon => 15% ROIC
The latest SWA RASM estimates were for May 2012 and they came in 5-6% higher than May 2011. The latest EIA spot prices for Jet A are in the $2.60-2.70 range. With the current revenue initiatives coming online over the next few years (Rapid Rewards, AirTran acquisition synergies, B737-800 deployment, and international flying) and the current trends in energy costs, SWA could attain a 15% ROIC quicker than you think. The question is how many consecutive months of lower energy costs will it take for Gary to feel comfortable pulling the growth lever. I seriously doubt SWA is only producing 120 billion ASMs annually by the year 2015.
YES! We could hit the 15% this year, or trend that way.