Southwest "Just another airline now"

[maxblast72]

I see this whole SWA and Air Tran deal as Southwest's last stand. No longer will they be as profitable as they once were. No longer will they be as successful as they once were. They will end up as just another airline.


Thats my 2 cents. What do you think?

685 Boeings, 150 more Boeings on order, and about $4 billion in cash/line of credit available.

Since the fuel/credit crises, Airtran has generated $250 million in operating profits in 18 months. Southwest has also done very well with their system optimization and "Bags Fly Free" campaign. Combining the two airlines will offer many new cities pairings to play connect the dots with as each airline has around 35 cities the other airline doesn't service.

I would bet that Southwest keeps their annual profit streak going for a few more years.

 

[terrehautesux]

We had a volley ball game scheduled in College Park, but the net was stolen and the police were called to chase away the hookers.

now that's funny but probably would happen.

 

[Full of LUV]

One aircraft type allowing everybody to operate everything is cost effective only to a point. At an airline with a fleet below 200 units it saves dollars and makes sense. Once you get past a certain fleet count and base count everybody is not going to be in a position to operate everything anyway.

I don't know why the Southwest haters point to anything as significant as a livery change to foretell the doom of WN but the haters do.

It's not haters, it's just that the conventional wisdom from the press and the industry analysts is that the legacy carriers had it all wrong and SWA's model was all right, despite the lack of service to a majority of america. Now SWA just looks like another "legacy" with employees that smile.

US Air had smiling employees when they were growing, it's how to keep morale when things stagnate or regress that is the challenge.
Best of luck.....

 

[Full of LUV]

Since the fuel/credit crises, Airtran has generated $250 million in operating profits in 18 months. Southwest has also done very well with their system optimization and "Bags Fly Free" campaign.

Every airline (save AA) has done well the last 18 months with record LF's and reasonable and predictable gas prices. I know popular wisdom from the SWA crowd is that people flock there to avoid bag fees, but all the airlines charging fees are doing well, so perhaps SWA has been leaving millions of revenue on the table????

 

[scoreboardII]

so perhaps SWA has been leaving millions of revenue on the table????

no, free bags is SWA's "first class upgrade'.

despite the lack of service to a majority of america.

Please describe why a small city has a right to jet air service?