It is time! Swa/Alaska

[roughneck]

Conference call to investors on Thursday the 8th. Rumor has it Alaska has scheduled one too.

SWA is announcing "changes" to its business model that will include the begining of the new boarding process, changes to "rapid rewards" and a "new partner."

 

[Going2Baja]

I really hope this is just coincidence....

 

[EMBpilot]

...and a "new partner."

May be it'll just be some sort of code share?
Good luck to all!

 

[MALSR]

they're going with pepsi instead of coke

 

[On Your Six]

SWA is buying the Alaska MD80s!

 

[General Lee]

The Alaska guys finally get to go to some panoramic cities. Forget Juneau or Cancun, try Lubbock and Midland/Odessa. Su-wheat.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[airlinepilot]

I was in MDW last week and the agent told us there was going to be a big announcement on the 8th. Maybe this is why we borrowed the $500,000 in Sept...

 

[Bill Nelson]

I just got off the phone with a SWA buddy. He said that they are hearing this. I guess SWA management has asked to codeshare with RJ's. He said he heard the idea was to buy Alaska and keep the Horizon feed "as is." SWA didn't know how SWAPA would respond. He sent me this email from the SWAPA president. Conference call today.

Links volunteers,

I’ll be on vacation for the next week but Brink and I want to talk specifically about what we have agreed to in Section I with respect to scope and codesharing. We have made significant progress at the table in protecting both our work and our jobs. I’m sure you’ve heard the “RJ codeshare” rumors by now and we’ll address that very topic. You’ll be getting information from Neal Hanks about date/time for a conference call soon and I hope you can make it.

I am pleased with what we have negotiated in Section I and I think we have excellent language in place to protect us from “bad” codeshare agreements. I hope you can make the call. Thanks for your efforts.

CK

Capt. Carl Kuwitzky
President
Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association

 

[Benhuntn]

Alaska will install RNP and autothrottles in SWA aircraft for a fee of 500m. We will agree to allow them to keep Colleen on their tails after she retires.

 

[airlinepilot]

The last time Carl was in BWI he said the only remaining problem was the issue of scope and code share. He stated that Kell wanted a pretty free hand and the union was not willing to give him that.

 

[roughneck]

Herb has been called many things, but never Kell. Where did you get that?

 

[airlinepilot]

sorry....typo...Gary Kelly

 

[Sioux115]

Haven't been able to find an Alaska teleconference on the 8th, they are going to have a webcast on the 7th from Goldman Sachs.

 

[airlinepilot]

Does anyone know how many pilots are at Alaska and how many 737's they have?

 

[Reebo]

Does anyone know how many pilots are at Alaska and how many 737's they have?

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/major-national-lcc/alaska.html

 

[igneousy2]

about 1600 pilots +/- 25

116 total aircraft - right now about 100+/- 737's and 15+/- MD80's. The remainder of the MD80's will be swapped 1 for 1 during 2008 to have a total of 116 total 737's by the end of 2008.

Later

 

[PCL_128]

We will agree to allow them to keep Colleen on their tails after she retires.

I always thought that that was Hillary on their tails.

 

[PTinbound]

Gentlemen,
Come, let us reason together. First - I've been flying in this business for 11 years now, and if I had a nickel for every "big announcement" that was promised to come I'd be retired by now. Have any of you ever heard of any impending "big announcements" that actually came true?
Second, IF we were to buy Alaska, or anyone else, I can guran -darn - tee it that NONE of us would have any idea it was coming. It would come out from left field by surprise. I'd guess that this "new partner" might be a codeshare with ATA or some other carrier to do some kind of international flying. The man in the big D has made it clear that this is the direction to go. We'll see if I'm wrong on the 8th. My bet is no announcement, and if or when it comes, it would be what I guessed.

 

[Sioux115]

I just checked SWA's site and there is no scheduled teleconference. Was it just recently announced?

 

[FlyinGuy]

They will announce $5 for an A boarding pass....

 

[Capi_Cafre']

A friend at Horizon mentioned that a bunch of the people that you see all the time but nobody really knows what they actually do got pinkslipped recently.

 

[rtmcfi]

Just to further stir the pot, SkyWest rescheduled their earnings call to November 8th. There have been lots of southwest rumors floating around SkyWest.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071030/latu167.html?.v=15

 

[debo007]

For what its worth, a friend of mine at Skywest who has been there 20 years called me 2 weeks ago out of the blue and said they were hearing that a feeder partnership with us at SWA was basically a done deal. He said voting in ALPA would be the only deal-killer

I told him he was crazy but who knows.

 

[ferlo]

Herb Kelleher was in First Class on Alaska Last week...probably going to AK to fish however.

 

[Noserider76]

Don't open the scope door at all. You guys have a great thing going flying all your own pax (with the exception of the ATA codeshare). We've lost over 3000 pilot positions since I joined my company 7 years ago, mainly due to RJ proliferation. Don't give another inch on scope. Once you open the door you'll never get it closed again.

If the company wants to serve smaller markets with smaller aircraft, you need to make sure it's Southwest pilots doing the flying.

 

[SWA/FO]

Hey Noserider 76,

I agree 100% with your statement.

 

[airlinepilot]

Word on the street is the announce ment is the 8th and that last week senior managers where brought in to sign non-disclosure statements about what was going on. ALso a FA's just back from annual training in DAL were told to get their passports.

 

[RJones]

Don't open the scope door at all. You guys have a great thing going flying all your own pax (with the exception of the ATA codeshare). We've lost over 3000 pilot positions since I joined my company 7 years ago, mainly due to RJ proliferation. Don't give another inch on scope. Once you open the door you'll never get it closed again.

If the company wants to serve smaller markets with smaller aircraft, you need to make sure it's Southwest pilots doing the flying.

Problem is the door is wide open already, in fact it's off the hinges sitting in the dumpster. A huge problem to solve now as I see it.

RJ

 

[Sioux115]

For what its worth, a friend of mine at Skywest who has been there 20 years called me 2 weeks ago out of the blue and said they were hearing that a feeder partnership with us at SWA was basically a done deal. He said voting in ALPA would be the only deal-killer

I told him he was crazy but who knows.

That rumor was going around over three years ago when I was in initial ground school. Well I guess it wasn't much of a rumor because it came directly from Jerry. HE said they were in talks with Soutwest about the feasability of RJ feed but it didn't really get very far, especially with the pilot union.

 

[Tanker Clown]

I hear that SWA is going to buy Delta just to make the general do LBB overnights. I figure spite is as good of a reason as any to buy another airline. The good news is that he won't have to take pay cuts again.