SW Execs Boast They'll Conquer Delta's ATL w/ Air Tran Merger (& get a/c for Hawaii)

[seerickyfly]

Im not sold on this ATL is so damm good city. Most of the pax are connectors because DAL and AAI hub there. I mean, is like ATL bigger tham NY? BOS? PHL? population wise? No. How many ATL customers are originating? Travelers hate to connect there too.

SWA is buying a hub and spoke airline but still claims they are not. Yeah right. I see a short term increase of flights for SWA in ATL but over the long term they will realise its just another STL situiation. My .02 worth.

 

[PCL_128]

ATL is the largest city in the South. Lots of O&D traffic. And AirTran is far from a hub and spoke carrier. Over half of our flights never touch Atlanta.

 

[minrest]

SWA is planning on 175 seats in the -800, I don't think that is cramming seats.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend you with the use of the word "cramming."

Perhaps I should say that SWA will put a "a lot of seats" in that plane and that equates to more weight than say an 800 with only 150 seats. More payload equals less fuel at the gate and higher burn getting to the critical point.

 

[seerickyfly]

ATL is the largest city in the South. Lots of O&D traffic. And AirTran is far from a hub and spoke carrier. Over half of our flights never touch Atlanta.

Not according to independant studies. Less than a third is originating. ATL is 33rd on the list in pop, behind ELP, HOU, BWI, DAL, FTW, AUS, JAX, CLT, CMH, SJC, DET, SAT, NY, BOS, PHL, SFO, MEM, SEA, MKE, ect ect ect....

I just dont think its the golden nugget its played out to be. Largest in the south???? Whats the south in your world? Georgia?

 

[FlyinGuy]

Sorry, didn't mean to offend you with the use of the word "cramming."

Perhaps I should say that SWA will put a "a lot of seats" in that plane and that equates to more weight than say an 800 with only 150 seats. More payload equals less fuel at the gate and higher burn getting to the critical point.

Apparently you have not seen how many of our passengers came straight from the buffet line!! 200 pound average for pax weight....yeah right! From my calculations the boeing has no trouble lifting the double wides we put in there so weight is not a problem.

 

[GuppyWN]

SWA is buying a hub and spoke airline but still claims they are not. Yeah right. I see a short term increase of flights for SWA in ATL but over the long term they will realise its just another STL situiation. My .02 worth.

WN is the biggest carrier in STL. If ATL turns out like STL......... I'm down with that!

Gup

 

[Z_Pilot]

All very interesting moves by Southwest.
What bamboozles me is that they are aggressively moving away from their successful business model by:

-Acquiring other airlines
-Acquiring other aircraft types (717s and talk of a "larger" airplane as referenced by OP's article)
-Moving into primary / largest airports in a metro area (EWR, ATL, DEN) instead of focusing on reliever airports

Southwest is going to be just another legacy carrier in 10 or 15 years with no first class.

 

[scoreboardII]

I think you need to subtract 11-16 years from your estimate.

 

[RedDogC130]

All very interesting moves by Southwest.
What bamboozles me is that they are aggressively moving away from their successful business model by:

-Acquiring other airlines
-Acquiring other aircraft types (717s and talk of a "larger" airplane as referenced by OP's article)
-Moving into primary / largest airports in a metro area (EWR, ATL, DEN) instead of focusing on reliever airports

Southwest is going to be just another legacy carrier in 10 or 15 years with no first class.

A company that does not adapt to the changing world it operates will not survive. SWA is just changing within the world it operates.

 

[Full of LUV]

A company that does not adapt to the changing world it operates will not survive. SWA is just changing within the world it operates.

What's funny is it's "changing" to adapt to the world is supposedly so despised just a few short years ago....