From Gary's Newsline for Monday, November 28th:
..."Last week was also the deadline to bid on Washington Reagan slots and LaGuardia slots, and Southwest did participate in that. We put in what I thought was a very healthy bid. We put in the maximum amount we thought was sensible. And, believe it or not, we did not win the bid by well over $10 million by the winning bidders. So, I’ll just say this, it’s one of those situations where, if you want to use the word “lost,” we may have lost this battle, but we’re certainly going to win the war. And, there’s just a point, when in any auction process when it makes no sense to bid any more money. We’re all about low costs; we’re all about great Service. We’ll have a terrific presence in New York’s LaGuardia airport already after our AirTran acquisition. And, of course, AirTran also brings us slots at Washington Reagan. So there was absolutely no need for us to overspend on this. The winning bidders essentially locked in losses into perpetuity with the amount of m oney that they paid, but we simply weren’t willing to do that. I’m very
happy with the outcome. We’ll continue to work hard to win more Customers in those markets, and keep our costs low."
So once again, depending how you think, slow and steady rules the day at SWA. Very boring but very sensable.
