Delta: Pilots' Strike Is 'Murder-Suicide'

[Patriot328]

are you talking fo wages? The biggest LCC of them all, SWA, 1st year captain 168/hour. Top captain 190/hour. You're a ways off there...

LUV's day will come. In some way or form, if every other airline's costs have come down, LUV will have to lower to compete. I'm not just saying pilots (or even labor itself), but total costs. Fuel hedges are taking care of that now, but when those run out or fuel comes down, SWA will lose its edge and won't be the darling it is now.

I'm not foreshadowing WN's extinction or even decline, but SWA does not operate in a vacuum and it will be impacted more and more by what other carriers are doing, especially since it will be competing more and more head to head (airport to airport) with other "legacy" and lcc carriers. LUV will probably always be one of the most efficiently run airlines because of the common fleet type and they definately have their sh*t together operationally, but they won't be immune to competition as Airtran and Jetblue expand like mad while Delta, UAL, CAL, and AMR slimline their operations to be more competative.

 

[737 Pylt]

LUV's day will come. In some way or form, if every other airline's costs have come down, LUV will have to lower to compete. I'm not just saying pilots (or even labor itself), but total costs. Fuel hedges are taking care of that now, but when those run out or fuel comes down, SWA will lose its edge and won't be the darling it is now.

I'm not foreshadowing WN's extinction or even decline, but SWA does not operate in a vacuum and it will be impacted more and more by what other carriers are doing, especially since it will be competing more and more head to head (airport to airport) with other "legacy" and lcc carriers. LUV will probably always be one of the most efficiently run airlines because of the common fleet type and they definately have their sh*t together operationally, but they won't be immune to competition as Airtran and Jetblue expand like mad while Delta, UAL, CAL, and AMR slimline their operations to be more competative.

All excellent points. I think the one overshadowing point to make is that LUV's management actually cares about making employees happy, not try to blame all their woes (and costs) on labor!
737