Southwest Line on Credit?

[waveflyer]

Ok- come 18 months from now if GK's very publicly stated goal has not been reached, critique away.
In the meantime, please realize that as common as the armchair CEO is in our flying business, you truly are not as smart as you think you are

 

[PCL_128]

Ok- come 18 months from now if GK's very publicly stated goal has not been reached, critique away.

I like how you just ignore the fact that he hasn't generated shareholder value for years. All will be ok in 18 months! Riiiiiight.

 

[Ty Webb]

Any other airline still run a newhire class on Sept. 12, 2001?

Yep, AirTran. We had a class that started September 10, 2001 and continued to hire through 2008, tripling the number of pilots.

 

[waveflyer]

Not as good of a record during the 2009 economic crisis though eh Ty?

 

[texman]

PCL,

It is easy to make money when you come out of bankruptcy. You start with a clean slate.

 

[Cobraair75drvr]

Y'all have gone from a nimble rapidly growing company to one of us. Reality is your airline always had a large cost advantage. Up through the last 5-8 years it was labor(both in pay, benefits and productivity), then fuel costs. Now you don't and GK is trying to find some advantage over the rest of us. You always will be more efficient because of having one type, however you don't have the large advantage of yester year and that is a major problem. It will be interesting to watch. The days of rapid growth are over and my guess is GK has a limited time to get his objectives (from the board) accomplished and then he's toast. The new guy maybe from the outside and you will be the target. Every dog has his day, and yours may be behind. Only time will tell. Good luck.

PCL,

It is easy to make money when you come out of bankruptcy. You start with a clean slate.

 

[fam62c]

No, wave, I just don't believe that any of that is going to lead to 15% ROIC. You know what would? Ancillary fees. Gary is leaving tons of money on the table by not charging for bags. And it's costing shareholders a lot of money. I finally sold all of my shares a couple of weeks ago because I was tired of sitting around and waiting for someone to wake up and care about shareholder value.

If you are interested in shareholder value there are far better places to look than the airline industry. Airlines are capital investment and labor intensive as well as being highly economically sensitive. Airlines are forced to make huge capital commitments that go out many years while having almost no visibility where it comes to their number one cost item, fuel. When the economy gets a cold the airlines get pneumonia.

A Buffett/Graham value investing disciple like yourself would normally be putting their money almost anywhere else

 

[PCL_128]

If you are interested in shareholder value there are far better places to look than the airline industry. Airlines are capital investment and labor intensive as well as being highly economically sensitive. Airlines are forced to make huge capital commitments that go out many years while having almost no visibility where it comes to their number one cost item, fuel. When the economy gets a cold the airlines get pneumonia.

No disagreement there. The only airline I've ever owned stock in was AirTran, which converted to SWA shares after the merger. A lot of AirTran employees owned company stock because you got a 10% discount in the ESPP. Being a Graham/Buffett disciple, it's difficult for me to pass up a 10% return as soon as the purchase is made.

A Buffett/Graham value investing disciple like yourself would normally be putting their money almost anywhere else

I'm proud to say that I own no airline stock today! But, to be honest, I am looking at Copa and Allegiant. They do have some good value indicators right now. Just need some more time to research and watch them before I make a purchase.

 

[slaquer5]

I like how you just ignore the fact that he hasn't generated shareholder value for years. All will be ok in 18 months! Riiiiiight.

And the other airlines did?

I am guessing you shorted AMR,DAL, UAL.

Now that would be a true value. I grand slam.

 

[ATLplt]

Not as good of a record during the 2009 economic crisis though eh Ty?

In 2009 we made a record profit of $135 million dollars.