Southwest to ‘trim headcount’ after growth in costs

[crxpilot]

DSM to LAS. Oct 31

Allegiant $110.80 plus bag ($25-35). Total. $135.80-$145.80. Nonstop

Southwest $139 no nonstops, gonna get an extra 3-4 hour tour of chicago midway for +/- $5

 

[tzskipper]

Don't let 'em fool you....

If nothing else, SW is brilliant at marketing... Note that SW collected more fees in 2011 than USAir.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Airlines-collect-$22-6-billion-in-ancillary-revenue-in-2011/

"United Continental collected the most: $5 billion, nearly twice what Delta collected, about $2.5 billion. American followed with $2 billion. Southwest collected $1.14 billion, US Airways collected roughly $1 billion and Alaska Airlines collected nearly $600 million."

S

 

[ATLplt]

If nothing else, SW is brilliant at marketing... Note that SW collected more fees in 2011 than USAir.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Airlines-collect-$22-6-billion-in-ancillary-revenue-in-2011/

"United Continental collected the most: $5 billion, nearly twice what Delta collected, about $2.5 billion. American followed with $2 billion. Southwest collected $1.14 billion, US Airways collected roughly $1 billion and Alaska Airlines collected nearly $600 million."

S

I'm thinking a lot of that was from AirTran's change and bag fees, business class upgrades, wifi, etc... but I could be wrong.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Ah, good ole' Marketing.

Southwest sets the market price...AKA " the Southwest effect" and charges an honest price that already has their costs and fees associated with it.

Airline "X" comes in with their brilliant ploy...Charge less for the ticket and hit the customer with baggage fees at the airport if they aren't savvy enough to read the fine print/fees schedule. This BTW is a large part of the traveling public. The folks who fly once every 2-3 years or so.

Great, they captured that segment of the customers for THAT flight.

Most people then realize ( when they get hit with the baggage fees) that the actual price was the same or very close to what they would have paid on SWA...and they feel as if they have been lied to.

They are NOT return customers. Ever. Next time, they pay to fly SWA and learn that not only was the price almost exactly the same, the service, people, and product are just that much better.

Those folks tell Milly and Bob down the street ALL about their experience with the two different airlines...and the following year when they go to see the new grandkid in Des Moines, I wonder who they are calling to book their flight?

The airlines that play the baggage fee game don't REALLY recognize ANY additional revenue(s) over what SWA did or does on the same flights or in the same markets.

They just move the Peas around among the Walnut shells in the accounting office and slap each other on the back while they blow smoke up each others arses and gloat over the "additional revenues" their brilliant bag fee plan has showed....in the "TPS Reports".



Meanwhile, back at the Ranch in DFW, the SWA people sit and smile and say " Hey, Thanks for a great Marketing gimmick. WE can do just the opposite, garner the same revenue ( in every market where we set the price anyway ) AND make people think we're the Good Guys who aren't trying to rip you off."

"Bags Fly Free. "

Perfect.

I'd bet my remaining testicle....that SWA NEVER plays the baggage fee game.

EVER.


YKW





.

Ya know.....the same can be said about Cattle car seating. They feel lied to and never return......ever!!!

 

[Whine Lover]

True....some people just can't stand the thought of not having their seat assigned.

But, it really doesn't bother most folks.


And, speaking of cattle cars..I flew Spirit ONCE....man, those seats must have about a 20 inch pitch, and they do NOT have a recline function.

Unbelievable. But, the krappy seat was assigned and they did charge my company for my carry-on bag.


" Mesa Sucks? " I have a new contender....



WL


P.S. - "Spirit's A320 aircraft feature seats with no recline and 28" of seat pitch - the least amount of space of all US domestic carriers."

Okay. But , it feels like 20" without the recline! ( SWA is 32-33" )

 

[easydoesit]

Some of the bigwigs had JUST flown back in from Dallas as we were finishing recurrent ground yesterday and they stopped by class. Of course, that's the first question I asked, what the heck does he mean by that?

The answer was pretty simple: there is a LOT of overlap in ground operations personnel throughout the entire system now, especially in cities where we both had a lot of presence but may trim back slightly and re-deploy the assets other places, for instance, MCO-BWI where we overlap quite a bit of traffic and don't need to.

The big spotlight is on Dallas... with the training center personnel combined, schedulers, dispatchers, I.T. (although a LOT of our I.T. people have been bailing since they're non-unionized which is unfortunate since our I.T. dept has been pretty decent, all things considered), and other office administration, the overhead from all that is quite a bit higher than it really needs to be.

As a result, as more departments are incorporated to Dallas, those who don't want to make the move and resign will not be replaced. Additionally, people in Dallas who resign will not be replaced and if it shorts a department, they may offer incentives for people to switch from personnel-heavy departments into those that were deficient, thereby "lowering the total head count".

With SWA still quite profitable from a yearly Net income perspective and that only improving as we connect the dots via code share next year, continue combining operations, and reducing overhead as mentioned above, that profit is only going to improve, barring further increase in oil prices or a further downturn in the economy. (did anyone else appreciate his comments aimed at the Presidential election regarding the worsening economy? got a chuckle out of me...)

Therefore, with profits in a livable range and only improving, no one should be worried about furloughs. We also asked how the they intended on getting all of us through training by 1/1/15, and they stated that they can train 1,096 pilots per year. I then asked how they planned on doing that when the most they had ever taken in one month was 48 and which we heard was running the sims non-stop between those and recurrent people and stressing the check airman program. They simply said those were the numbers the training dept said they could handle.

We also asked what the exact fleet numbers were over the next two years, including the 717's being sub-leased to Delta. We are sub-leasing 88 717's to Delta. SWA is taking delivery of 36 replacement aircraft this year, 20 next year, and 30 in 2014, bringing the hull numbers to 86 replacement 737's by 1/1/15, which coincides with "flat" fleet growth. In addition, attrition will drive around 300 retirements in 2013 and 2014 which corresponds to about 1,000 total SWA pilot upgrades in the 3 year period of the transition, or about 1/3 of the pre-merger SWA F/O's, over half of those upgrades were not planned before the acquisition.

After that, the list will "normalize" over a 2-3 year period, re-upgrading all our displaced CA's that can hold it by seniority (which by 2017 is close to 450), and then (2017-2018) the fleet will be re-evaluated (retirements/replacements of aircraft). They also said they are starting to put the new seats in the -300's, indicating that the airplane will be around at least as long as it takes to recoup that investment (5-7 years is what we heard before on that).

All this in the FWIW files.

What happened to the 717's that weren't going over until 2015? So what you are saying Lear, is that they plan on having all of us over to the SWA side by the end of 2014? Is that what the bigwigs said?

 

[Lear70]

What happened to the 717's that weren't going over until 2015? So what you are saying Lear, is that they plan on having all of us over to the SWA side by the end of 2014? Is that what the bigwigs said?

Yup. That's what they said. I still don't see how, but I just fly 'em.

 

[GIZMONC]

The only fees that SWA collects are oversized bags, third bag , um fees, pet fees and early bird boarding. Now on the FL side they collect baggage fees, seat fees, pet fees and UM fees. For the most part SWA only gets early bird on A16-30 and partial of B so it is not that many so max would be 300.00 per flight that is a far cry from bag fees. I think the reference from travelweekly was way off. I have found that many of these writers do NOT do their homework when they write articles like that.

 

[Bringupthebird]

If Southwest decides to sell it's tix on Travelocity, etc, then they will charge for bags. That's the only reason other airlines do it. They want to pop up as the lowest price and then add the bags etc,. later on.

If you've spent millions being the Official Airline of Everything so that you can drive business to Southwest.com, then you can charge whatever you like, provided no one comparison shops.

BTW, Southwest was the initiator of 5 of the last 7 fare increases. I suppose that's in preparation for a big fare sale.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Did the SWAPA contract qualify for a raise this year?