Southwest the new "Legacy" carrier?

[Saluki Dawg]

I think MKE will remain for the most part untouched from where it is today. I think that we will see MKE used much the same way STL is to the South. A reliever for MDW and a way to draw passengers from the Northern Suburbs that don't want to fly out of ORD or make the drive down to MDW. As for this article, I wouldn't be surprised if it was written by the Airport Manager at SRQ. He was highly vocal with his displeasure of SW's decision to leave SRQ and thought if he went to the press that SW would change their mind. When that didn't happen, he got even angrier. As someone who has flown this route for COEX, i will say that CO management has been very fickle about this market in the past. Since the new UAL is being run by former CO management, i wouldn't get too excited yet about this news if I was SRQ. Good luck to UAL though.

 

[minrest]

This was written by Michael Boyd.

 

[Whataburger]

Lecacies typically last around 75 years as a stand alone or solvent company. The good news is that we have 35 more years left!!

 

[acbarney]

Also...Tilton owns a house in Sarasota

 

[huronip]

Don't know United's, but

SWA CASM:
737-700 6.82 cents
737-800 5.76 cents

AT CASM
717 7.65 cents

AS CASM
737-800 6.73 cents

F9 CASM
A320 6.59 cents

B6
A320 7.41 cents

 

[FR8dognit]

Probably because SW already flies non stops to TPA and RSW through MCO. Just a guess.
It is as if the article was writtten by some freshman in Compostion 101. I give it a D-. It's stupid and has no facts other than a bunch of blah blah legacy blah blah blah.

We also go non-stop to MDW from both of these destinations[RSW/TPA].

Must be a slow news day. This isn't news. Just good business. It was an overlapping airport from an airline we bought. We have never gone there as regularly scheduled service.

 

[climbhappy]

funny, he moved up from freshman to sophomoric....haha....better than a D-, but i would say a hard C....actually, sensationalizing what is simply a business move to reallocate assets makes this junior journalism...i'd more interested in a story written by him about the death of whitney houston. or davy jones. or andrew breitbart.

 

[General Lee]

A New Chapter In US Airline Evolution... Really.

This morning, United Airlines is announcing that they will be entering the Sarasota-Chicago market with 737-800 nonstops to its hub at O'Hare. On first pass, great. Congratulate SRQ and move on.

On the other hand, don't move on. Take a hard look at what this represents.

It's a first - United is jumping into a market (SRQ-Chicago) that Southwest is abandoning

It's more than just a new route. It's a bombshell indication of an emerging paradigm in the economics of air service. It's likely that this is the first time that a legacy carrier has entered a substantial market abandoned by an LCC.

And it wasn't dropped by Southwest because of lack of traffic - but, according to WN, because of the carrier's operational costs. They are in business to make money, and they make business decisions accordingly. It's the main reason that Southwest has prospered for over 40 years. No point in staying at a destination that can't generate dollars to their bottom line.

Background: A New Competitive Paradigm: The LCC "Advantage" Illusory? The accepted lore is that LCCs are using their alleged cost advantages to blow legacy carriers out of markets left and right. The only problem with that fantasy is that the "LCC cost advantage" is often a figment of imagination on the part of financial analysts who wouldn't know a 737 from a vacuum cleaner.

Last month, Southwest Airlines advised Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport that, as part of its merger process with AirTran, it would pull out of the SRQ market in August.

The service being eliminated isn't just some one-flight-per-day drop in the bucket. It encompasses approximately 370,000 annual passengers generating over $47.3 million in revenues. This includes nearly 120,000 local O&D passengers that AirTran is carrying annually to Chicago/MDW, with average load factors in the 80% range, and all-up passenger revenue yields somewhere near 14.5 cents.

But even though MDW is one of Southwest's largest operations, with the potential for significant additional connecting feed traffic on the SRQ-MDW segment, the airline advised that the decision to drop SRQ wasn't even close - the loss factor was, according to WN, clear, unambiguous, and unsustainable with Southwest's cost structure and operating model.

So, Southwest is leaving. And United is moving to replace the gap left in Chicago service. In addition, Delta is also seeing potential in a post-AirTran/Southwest SRQ, too. They just filed schedules for nonstops to LGA. As did JetBlue.

Ponder the implications. It's a new set of competitive economics in the air service business.

There could be a lot more opportunities if SWA dumps the 717s quicker than expected too. DL is hanging on to the DC9s for an extra year, and maybe they will throw them into smaller markets SWA is dumping, instead of adding RJs (33 will leave DCI this year alone), which used to be standard practice. It will get interesting, no doubt.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[SWA Bubba]

This was written by Michael Boyd.

If this article really was written by Michael Boyd, then that would explain a lot of things. He's has a "aviation consulting company," (Boyd Consulting), that does little more than slam Southwest whenever and wherever possible. In that respect, he's like a "professional" version of OYS or Gen'l Lee. He gets paid to badmouth SWA, whereas OYS and GL do it for free.

To be honest, I can't even imagine who actually pays for his advice, seeing as how poor his track record is. About 90 -95% of the predictions he makes, turn out to be complete crap. His clients could probably save a lot of money by just signing up for FI and reading some of the SWA threads. Plus, they're more entertaining anyway.

Bubba

 

[General Lee]

If this article really was written by Michael Boyd, then that would explain a lot of things. He's has a "aviation consulting company," (Boyd Consulting), that does little more than slam Southwest whenever and wherever possible. In that respect, he's like a "professional" version of OYS or Gen'l Lee. He gets paid to badmouth SWA, whereas OYS and GL do it for free.

To be honest, I can't even imagine who actually pays for his advice, seeing as how poor his track record is. About 90 -95% of the predictions he makes, turn out to be complete crap. His clients could probably save a lot of money by just signing up for FI and reading some of the SWA threads. Plus, they're more entertaining anyway.

Bubba

He did predict 50 seat RJs would be going away in droves, and he is correct. DL is dumping another 33 this year, and not getting anymore 70/76 seaters (at the cap, and it won't be going any higher).

As far as badmouthing SWA, I really like the airline and how it pays it's pilots etc. I just didn't like the way the Airtran pilots were treated, that's all. I don't think I am alone. But, whatever, it's over and I hope you guys can make the best of it.


Bye Bye---General Lee