For you SWA information junkies

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Southwest Airlines Declares 105th Consecutive Quarterly Dividend
Thursday November 21, 2:12 pm ET


DALLAS, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines' (NYSE: LUV - News) Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $.0045 per share to Shareholders of record at the close of business on December 11, 2002 on all shares then issued and outstanding. The 105th consecutive dividend will be paid on January 10, 2003.



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Source: Southwest Airlines

 

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Some more news

Low-cost carriers predicted to gain market share

The future of U.S. airline travel may be dominated by low-cost carriers instead of today's biggest full-service airlines, according to AviationNow.com.

By 2010, the domestic market share of United, American, Delta, Continental, US Air, Northwest and Alaska Airlines will fall to about 62 percent from the current 75 percent, drop another 12 percent by 2017, and settle in at around 45 percent by 2020. That prediction comes from Edmund Greenslet of ESG Aviation Services, whose forecasts are used by the U.S. Transportation Department and the Transportation Research Council. He predicts Southwest will be the largest U.S. airline by 2013 and that JetBlue will be the third largest by 2020.

"The low-fare innovation has passed through its pioneering stage and has reached its rapid growth era," Greenslet said. "In many ways, it is a classic pattern often seen in other industries when a superior product replaces those of established producers. The initial penetration is slow, but at some stage it achieves enough critical mass to blossom into a 'must have' product. It [appears] that the low-fare air transportation product has now reached its 'must have' stage."

However, don't expect to see hub-and-spoke airlines give up their business model entirely, he said. The model is used by some of the world's most successful airlines, including Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways

 

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ATW: Southwest was world's most profitable airline in 2001
Dateline: Thursday June 27, 2002

Southwest Airlines was the most profitable passenger airline in the world last year, according to Air Transport World's just-released "World Airline Report" published in the July issue.

The granddaddy of all low-fare, low-cost carriers earned $511.1 million last year on sales of $5.5 billion, giving it a net profit margin of just under 10% in a year in which the world's airlines collectively lost $11.9 billion on revenues of $305 billion. The second most profitable passenger carrier, Singapore Airlines, earned $351.2 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002.

Reflecting the strong performance of the low-fare sector in general both before and after Sept. 11, Ryanair, easyJet, JetBlue, WestJet and Go were also among the world's 25 most profitable airlines, according to ATW. Yet with the exception of Southwest, none of these ranked in the magazine's list of Top 25 Airlines in terms of revenues, passenger traffic or capacity.


The largest airline company in terms of operating revenues was American Airlines parent AMR Corp., followed by United Airlines. In traffic, United surpassed its archrival if TWA traffic is excluded from American's total. AA acquired TWA in April 2001 but it was not fully integrated until earlier this year. Delta Air Lines maintained by a wide margin its position as the world's largest airline in passengers carried.


Among cargo and express carriers, FedEx Express led in revenues, operating profit and net profitability. It also generated the most FTKs, followed by Lufthansa Cargo, UPS, Singapore Airlines and Korean Air. Lufthansa was the largest of the combination carriers.


Along with the list of Top 25 Airlines in eight categories, the "World Airline Report" includes financial and/or traffic data and fleet listings for approximately 570 airlines. It can be ordered online or via fax by visiting the ATWOnline Store on the navigation bar at www.ATWOnline.com.