Southwest breaks ground

[scoreboardII]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...e-was-last-straw-in-3600712.php?cmpid=twitter

SWA doesn't really look for opportunity. It just follows the ambulance.

You have an amazing ability to miss the facts and spin your own agenda of hypocrisy.

From the article:

The vote this week to expand Hobby Airport over objections of United Airlines, and United's subsequent announcement of layoffs was, in some ways, the end of an affair.
Continental Airlines and Houston had a decades-long relationship in which the hometown airline sponsored art exhibits, sent students on free trips, bought tables at charity events, and, of course, seeded local politicians' campaign accounts with tens of thousands of dollars - more than $50,000 to controller and Mayor Annise Parker alone in the past five years. It helped bankroll Parker's 2010 inauguration.
Continental was so influential at City Hall that former CEO Gordon Bethune recently recalled a brazen request he made in the 1990s of then-Mayor Bob Lanier: "Move out the airport director and give us someone who's business friendly." And Lanier did.

Everything that's wrong with America today is contained in the bolded red items above and practiced by your beloved airline. Payoff's, slush funds, cronyism, outright bribes. Yet you say SWA chases ambulances, hypocrisy.

And the airline, now folded into United, responded within hours of the vote by announcing that this fall it will start making good on its threat to eliminate 1,300 Houston jobs if the council chose another suitor.

In the real world, this is called blackmail.

"We should have just had Enron and Continental submit their wish list at the beginning of the year so we could just concentrate on the people's business for the other 11 months,"

Very astute, compare CAL to ENRON

"Continental, or United, has been very concerned about job losses in Houston. They weren't so concerned about job losses when they moved their headquarters to Chicago," Hobby said.

DING DING DING, we have a winner. Put it to bed, stay off our threads, use your own advise.

 

[SWA Bubba]

You're ignoring the part about doing a lot for Houston, which CAL did do. We got a lot because we did a lot. I don't know how you can be in a city for more than 40 years and do less than SWA has.

Huh? We do all the same sort of stuff (charities, etc.) that are referenced in that article. The thing we don't do that Continental did was to bribe politicians to give us special favors. Why? Are you proud of that?

Can you explain that one to me? SWA carries on like they are some special group... What have you done to get special treatment? You've done nothing, and Houston is allowing you to split the FIS. Unbelievable.

For the thousandth time, we're not looking for "special treatment." We're looking for the same shot at making our business model work as anyone else. Flying OUR model from the airports WE want to fly from.

And by the way, Houston isn't "allowing us to split the FIS." Where do you get this crap? It's the FAA's friggin' obligation to provide those services at any airport where they're needed. It's in their damn charter. It's what they do. If you wanted to fly your Unical airplanes out of Manassas Regional, then the FAA, TSA, etc. would be obligated to provide services there. The passenger fees would be used to pay the government for it. That's how it works.

*Beyond all this stuff, hopefully Houston has a new mayor on Nov 5th. It's not real likely, but perhaps. I hope the former CAL employees get out and vote.

Really? Hoping for a new politician you can bribe? Get him to do you special favors? Personally, I don't think anyone in Houston trusts you anymore.

Also, I believe we're going to start to hear of some other airlines that want in on Hobby. That's coming according to HAS. That's all any of us really want in the end. You shouldn't simply win on a decision in a council meeting.

Good. C'mon down. We're not afraid of head-to-head competition. Just like we're happy to do it at Love, although most people who have come there have left on their own accord. Personally, I don't believe you'll do it, because you wouldn't want to split your operation. You remember that, right? Splitting one's operation? That's what YOU though would be "fair," to force us to do.

You ought to have to go fly and deliver and earn the win.

Dude, that's all we've ever asked. Let us do it without Unical's management trying to tell us how to run our airline, and what airports we should be "allowed" to fly out of. Geez--you're making my point now. Thanks!

Bubba

 

[Flopgut]

And by the way, Houston isn't "allowing us to split the FIS." Where do you get this crap? It's the FAA's friggin' obligation to provide those services at any airport where they're needed. It's in their damn charter. It's what they do. If you wanted to fly your Unical airplanes out of Manassas Regional, then the FAA, TSA, etc. would be obligated to provide services there. The passenger fees would be used to pay the government for it. That's how it works.

Bubba

Completely false, and you know it. As I pointed out in the longer thread on this topic 6 or 8 months ago. The FAA is perfectly within its right to decline to open a second FIS in a certain municipality. Denver was the example. Houston's mayor wanted it, so the FAA went along. If CAL was still around, or even more correctly, if it was another airline other than SWA, this wouldn't be happening. CAL did nothing that was not above board. We participated thoroughly in all manner of civic and political support.

 

[Flopgut]

You have an amazing ability to miss the facts and spin your own agenda of hypocrisy.

From the article:


Everything that's wrong with America today is contained in the bolded red items above and practiced by your beloved airline. Payoff's, slush funds, cronyism, outright bribes. Yet you say SWA chases ambulances, hypocrisy.




In the real world, this is called blackmail.





Very astute, compare CAL to ENRON

DING DING DING, we have a winner. Put it to bed, stay off our threads, use your own advise.

I'd say the same about you're airline. It's what is wrong with the industry and the world, really. You don't do anything but thrive in another's aftermath. Be it Braniff or Continental or even 911. If something awful doesn't happen to someone else you don't make a move. You're the first to plant your flag in the ashes.

And look at your own posts and this thread: you want me to stay off SWA threads? I pretty much was for 3+ pages. One quick post meant to de-escalate, and then I get called out specifically. If you look at my behavior I don't post on every SWA thread. This issue effects me so I read the thread. Don't want me to post? Do go looking for me. Seems to me that's what wrong with this web site. SWA guys dish it out, but can't take it.

 

[PCL_128]

Every day that goes by is one more closer to the day SWA gets a bad CEO

They already have one.

 

[Flopgut]

Dude, that's all we've ever asked. Let us do it without Unical's management trying to tell us how to run our airline, and what airports we should be "allowed" to fly out of. Geez--you're making my point now. Thanks!

Bubba

Observations I've seen in the last 6 months or so indicate that HAS is less comfortable with the possibility that Hobby becomes a Love situation. Honestly I think the big celebration at the council meeting hurt you guys. Members got bullied into that vote by the mayor in the first place. And then she doesn't gavel out the celebration... Houstonians don't like that sort of thing. The council thought they were giving you a business opportunity, not a guarantee. Your uproar left them second guessing. I think the council came to understand our concerns only after the vote.

If there is healthy competition out there and you guys do well, I'll be the first to congratulate you. You game the gates or use political pressure to keep airlines out (or force them to IAH) you can give me the same acknowledgment. Deal?

 

[Flopgut]

They already have one.

I would dearly love to be writing a check for a fat ALPA assessment going toward Aitran legal fees.

 

[scoreboardII]

Completely false, and you know it. As I pointed out in the longer thread on this topic 6 or 8 months ago. The FAA is perfectly within its right to decline to open a second FIS in a certain municipality. Denver was the example. Houston's mayor wanted it, so the FAA went along. If CAL was still around, or even more correctly, if it was another airline other than SWA, this wouldn't be happening. CAL did nothing that was not above board. We participated thoroughly in all manner of civic and political support.

You are rewriting history again, the FIS in DEN Stapleton became NA the second the bulldozers demolished the runways.

 

[scoreboardII]

I'd say the same about you're airline. It's what is wrong with the industry and the world, really. You don't do anything but thrive in another's aftermath. Be it Braniff or Continental or even 911. If something awful doesn't happen to someone else you don't make a move. You're the first to plant your flag in the ashes.

And look at your own posts and this thread: you want me to stay off SWA threads? I pretty much was for 3+ pages. One quick post meant to de-escalate, and then I get called out specifically. If you look at my behavior I don't post on every SWA thread. This issue effects me so I read the thread. Don't want me to post? Do go looking for me. Seems to me that's what wrong with this web site. SWA guys dish it out, but can't take it.

Your picture must be placed next to the definition of hypocrite!

SWA didn't kill NWA, TWA, Pan Am, Braniff or any other airline. Braniff as an example, how often can a 747 flying empty make money? Does a 737-200 compete with a 747? Do the math before you spout childish drivel please, for your own good.

SWA flourished in our niche airports, those others failed long after SWA was successful, not as a result of failures of those airlines.

Sure, SWA jumped in to provide a service, just like in any industry when a player folds. Just like AA took over TWA, like Delta absorbed NWA, UAL combined with CAL.

YGBFSM, your blaming airlines being unable to compete after 911 on SWA?

You need to go read an economics and business management book flopster.

Flop, post what you want, when you want, I'm just going to be here every time to ensure you are not lying about it.

 

[Flopgut]

You are rewriting history again, the FIS in DEN Stapleton became NA the second the bulldozers demolished the runways.

Well, there are actually two examples. Denver is the precedent and the airport was mot Stapleton. The other example is Dallas. The agreement you eventually could not wiggle out of stated it would be in Dallas' best interest to have only one FIS. So you come to Houston knowing full well you've got nothing but problems for everybody but your own airline.