Southwest Airlines expected to expand Denver flights

[Noserider76]

The ignorance expressed by some here on FI is just breathtaking at times.

Yeah, I know. Especially the ones who go around screaming about how their airline is coming in to kill anything in it's path. And those that think they've had anything to do with their companies ability to undercut prices in just about every market.

 

[ASADFW7]

Good Luck to those who think attacking others is useful. It is mostly a free market. If you think fuel hedging is not playing fair, then look at your management and ask them what are they doing long term to control costs? SWA has a plan expanding in DEN is a small part of that to make money.

 

[Cardinal]

Fuel hedging is cash-intensive. Most carriers, F9 included, don't have the hundreds of millions lying around to make long-term hedging practical.

 

[Whataburger]

interesting Den/frontier info. http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/new...98154.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

 

[furloughed dude]

Dude,

I have to say I agree with you for the most part.....

 

[CitationUltra]

While I would never wish any bad news to all of my friends over at SWA, it would suit me just fine if the big announcement was that they hate denver and were pulling out all aircraft as of the 10th!

We at F9 have held our own and actually profitted on a lot of the competing routes with Southwest, but our current state of the airline is not stellar. Increased competition is not the greatest news at DIA. Sure wish we had that 25 million pissed away on lynx to help buffer $100 oil. Circling the wagons at denver, again, might blow up in our faces.

This really looks like an extension of a move calculated to finish off Frontier, unfortunately. SWA has been laying this groundwork for two years, with last year having been a sort of wearing down with fares and capacity, which drained away F9s cash reserves.

As you pointed out, they also "pissed away" the $25 million on the Lynx start-up ($20 million of it unnecessarily) and added no revenue. SWA knows that too.

A very sad state of affairs for the great employees--and for the stockholders--of Frontier Holdings.

 

[CitationUltra]

Delete double post.

 

[learherkjay]

This really looks like an extension of a move calculated to finish off Frontier, unfortunately. SWA has been laying this groundwork for two years, with last year having been a sort of wearing down with fares and capacity, which drained away F9s cash reserves.

There is no "calculated" plan to kill off
Frontier. It is called connecting the dots to a new market in hopes of making more moeny. Whether F9 or UAL are there or not doesn't matter. Frontier flies almost all of it's flights out or to DEN. They have a great product and a loyal DEN customer base. Southwest is big in a lot of different cities. So, when a lot of those loyal customers in others places want to go to DEN, SWA would like to take them there and back instead of someone else. So, let's drop the SWA is the exterminator on the block. It is just simple business; DEN has a lot of traffic and SWA is just simply trying to make some money off of it.

Good luck to all involved

 

[CitationUltra]

There is no "calculated" plan to kill off
Frontier. It is called connecting the dots to a new market in hopes of making more moeny. Whether F9 or UAL are there or not doesn't matter. Frontier flies almost all of it's flights out or to DEN. They have a great product and a loyal DEN customer base. Southwest is big in a lot of different cities. So, when a lot of those loyal customers in others places want to go to DEN, SWA would like to take them there and back instead of someone else. So, let's drop the SWA is the exterminator on the block. It is just simple business; DEN has a lot of traffic and SWA is just simply trying to make some money off of it.

Good luck to all involved

You are quite naive. Competitive predation has been a consistent theme in this segment of the industry since deregulation.

Yes, it's "just business" but the casualties are real nonetheless.

 

[Gandalf]

But it is good for the consumer....the Customer...remember that guy? IT's really all about the Customer.

Look at the Wright Amendment....after all the bluster and hoo-hah...It seems that DFW did not turn into an empty praire....DAL didn't have multiple hub turns all day long with 777's to far flung places.

BUT...the customer is the one who has benefitted...from more choices, more destinations and lower fares...at both airports

Yes, cuz' thats what this industry needs more of.....lower fares. No wonder most of the airlines are in bankruptcy and merging.

It is the low fare mentality of the customer that hurts us all. They want the first class meal and drink service, route and aircraft choices, and dirt low fares from LA to NY at the last minute.

If you walk into a BMW dealership with $15,000 you would be laughed out of the store. They have priced their product to make a profit.

However, we here in the airline industry like to price our product to take a loss....See that tv special on American Airlines.....a trans-con. on a 67 made them a whopping $200. Wow.

And when we raise fares a whooping $5 to cover a crude oil price of $100/barrel the passengers, driven by the media, freaks out.

So, yes good for the consumer at one point, but ultimately that low, low fare is coming full circle to bite him in the a$$.