SWA Connecting More Dots.

[AF757Pilot]

New Year, New Service; Southwest Connects the Dots With New Nonstop Service


DALLAS, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) announced today that it will be celebrating the New Year with new nonstop service. Beginning January 18, 2004, Southwest Airlines will connect the dots with brand new daily nonstop service between Spokane, Wash., and Las Vegas. On January 24, 2004, Southwest Airlines will add Saturday-only service between Los Angeles and Tampa, Fla.; between Chicago and Salt Lake City; between Ontario, Calif., and Reno, Nev.; and between Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas.

"This is another indication of Southwest Airlines' commitment to flexibility and convenience," said Joyce Rogge, Southwest's senior vice president of marketing. "We are always looking for ways to enhance our service and adding these flights meets our Customers' demand for nonstop service between these cities."

Sounds good to me!

AF

 

[AJWick]

New Hire Classes to resume shortly....Please Stand By!

 

[SWA/FO]

Awesome!!! To all those in the pool, hang on...you're getting closer.

To all those out of work and/or not happy where you are at and who have not considered a career at SWA = crazy

 

[HOUMAN]

Just talked to LL. She says things are looking good and hopes to have me in class before I have to update my paperwork again (my paperwork was updated in July).

 

[CoopDog]

January or February?

Houman,

Did LL mention anything about classes starting in February as opposed to January? (somebody mentioned that last week).

Of course that was last week.....time to take another grain of salt.

But I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel....can't wait.


Coop

 

[HarleyGuy]

Hou-
Your new avatar is AWESOME!!

HG

ps- A says hi

 

[waitin]

yikes!

Houman,
Know there have been lots of setbacks, but at #56 on the un-official list, I'm hoping you're in class by March, not July!!!
Preaching to the choir...

 

[chase]

Additional info

Not directly related to connecting the dots but found this info interesting.

The next new hire class of FAs are being advertised to be filled from only "internal" employees at SWA right now. The hope is there will be enough folks who wish to switch to inflight from other job positions within SWA that will result in the first ever (that anyone I had spoken with) entire class (180ish) of new FAs.

I mentioned when the last qtr results came out SWA had actually fewer folks working at SWA than 1 year early..07/02-07/03..(only by about 250). The ratio of employees to airplanes had dropped from over 90 to just over 86 per airplane. This is still a number that is higher than it was when the company was really churning out the cash.

So what does getting internals do for this number?

1. Allows the company to control costs by taking excesses in other departments & move them to positions in the company where folks are needed. Yes some vacancies may be created from the internals moving but not necessarily & others from within the company & overmanned positions may fill the "backfill" jobs. Yes new folks aren't hired but the company has tried to stay lean in the years past & still feels this is important...I agree.

2. Takes folks off the payroll at a higher level & moves them to a lower level. Controls costs.

3. Takes folks who understand the culture by the fact they have worked here for awhile & hopefully insures "new FAs" have the same type of work culture that is desired by the company.

4. Adding the rest of the new airplanes for '03 allows no increase of "new" folks on the FA side of the house. Yes there are many other positions being advertised & being filled by external folks (sse the www.southwest.com site, careers to see for yourself) but in terms of FAs, mostly all internals if they can find the sufficient number needed. I haven't heard if that number has been reached though.

Folks years from now will look back on '04 as the most recent SWA hiring boom, not just for pilots but for FAs & others too. This small measure of saving money isn't some historical event by any mean but is one of many examples how SWA attempts to keep costs down even when things would appear they could be frivolous with their money, even at a small level. cheers,

 

[HOUMAN]

Coop,
She did say "...it looks like classes might be starting around the Feburary time frame..." So take it for what it's worth. If she is if'y about me getting in class by July, then it looks like I am around 12 classes out at 2 classes per month or 6 classes out at 1 class per month or 17,650,285 pull ups to go for Houman. Who knows??!! I just hope I don't have to complete another update package.

Watin,
I too am hoping for early spring, not summer, for a class date. It seems that every month we get closer to "the hiring boom of 2004" the further out the class start date "rumors" get.
It was nice to hear some concrete news that the expansion plans for 2004 are on the way. I guess SWA will man the jets with "internals" for now. So... back to the pool for me, hope ya'll have a nice day.

 

[chase]

Aircraft Update

Fleet Update
Southwest has taken delivery of N444WN–our 13th new Boeing 737-700 of the year. With the addition, our fleet now stands at 385 aircraft: 24 -200s, 194 -300s, 25 -500s, and 142 -700s.
For the remainder of the year, we have four additional 737-700 deliveries (two each in November and December) and two -200 retirements scheduled.

_________

Still hearing that more aircraft than the announced deliveries for next year will be occurring. Lets hope so.

 

[Aplus9]

More Rumors

Talked to a friend who is an F/O. He was just at Dallas for Sims and talked to a person (name w/held to protect the innocent) high on the food chain. He told him that classes should start in January. I asked how many, but my bud did not ask that one. Sorry.


Aplus

 

[chase]

Jan 5

I spoke to someone who went through training the other day & his group was told that 5 Jan would be the first new hire class. I haven't spoken to anyone first hand yet but will look into it. Again, nothing is definite until you show up on property but everything points to 2 classes per month beginning '04. For those in the shallow end, start getting your towel close, you're about to dry off!!!

 

[AJWick]

Thats great news chase....
I had heard rotten rumours about the wave starting in February.

This is good...this is very good.

aj

 

[CoopDog]

Beer pool

OK AJ, you beat me to it, but I'll 2nd that great news from Chase. For those in the Beer Pool, and the next class, and having Jan 5th as your pick:

THIS BUD'S FOR YOU!


Well, back to the edit key....had a question for Chase, after reading the post again.

Still hearing that more aircraft than the announced deliveries for next year will be occurring. Lets hope so.


__________________
chase

More great news Chase. I also wanted to ask you about the -200 retirement issue. One of my buddies on the line at SWA told me that the -200 retirement deferment looks likely. Any good intel on this?

Coop

 

[chase]

-200

We retire 2 more this year. Remaining number will be 22. We'll retire 16 next year with 6 the following year. I think that is the right number but as always SWA may have other plans. We'll see what happens. Giving up 16 -200s would result in a 4.5% in capacity. If SWA can find enough additional aircraft to net not 26 aircraft next year but 42 (which is how many new -700s they are getting) then things will look good for new hires.

We'll see how the 5 Jan date works out. First calls won't come for many months so don't start paying off any bets until they come along. You never know!!!

 

[learflyer]

Is there website up to date concerning not taking anymore applications until 2004? Thanks! If not, how do you apply?

 

[AF757Pilot]

Is there website up to date concerning not taking anymore applications until 2004? Thanks! If not, how do you apply?

I just looked at their web site. They are still not taking applications until next year. However, they do not require a type rating to apply. Go the careers part of the www.iflyswa.com web site for further information.

AF (ex)

 

[HOUMAN]

Thanks Chase and Aplus. The January class start date goes in line with what has been published on the crew base websites and company news line. It is too bad LL has to be so conservative when she estimates dates. I hope the rumors are correct and we beat the PD estimate of a Feb. start time.

 

[AJWick]

Word is that they are talking about January classes again.

Hope this is true.

 

[HOUMAN]

AJ,
When you say, "they", do you mean the PD ?

 

[chase]

HOUman

The PD ARE NOT talking about Jan. They are being very consistent to simply only state things they know & not to speculate. They are great folks but don't spend time passing along all the rumors that are put on here & other places as to when class dates may or may not start. They read the site & find it interesting I'm sure to see what folks here/say/repeat but in reality they deal only with what is real.

Please don't take my comments as demeaning or derogatory but I hope to deflect any rush for phone calls to their offices in trying to confirm/deny rumors. They'll be glad to answer other questions but suppositions are not in their job descriptions

I've never heard any of them predict with any degree of certainty firm class dates prior to actually notifying folks of classes so I would expect the same thing to happen in this case. Up until Dec sometime I'm sure they will say things aren't for sure yet but maybe look good but for hard dates, don't expect too much.

I've only heard "other pilots" talking about what they may have heard 2nd/3rd hand in training so the credibility is for you to decide. There are variables out there that may delay the process:

1. Some other disaster (God forbid)
2. SWA is implementing some new checklist procedures. The date of implementation of these is unknown but the desire was to have it in place for everyone prior to any new hires coming on board. They don't want new hires learning old procedures & then turning around 1 month later having new checklists to learn. If that is delayed then decisions would have to be made on whether delaying several weeks might be better for starting new hires. No official word so we'll see what happens.
3. Aircraft delivery schedules changing (who knows what could happen).

Not to rain on parades but the reality until you show up on the property, don't pay off any bets!! good luck

 

[HOUMAN]

No worries Chase. The last time I asked LL, or anyone from the PD, when I would be in class was over a year ago. The only time I call is when my address, phone number, e-mail, etc... changes. And even then, I never bring up the class date rumors. In fact.. I bet all of the poolies after almost 2 years of bobbing in the slog have figured out that the P.D. is only going to simply state things they know & not speculate. That is their job.

By the way Chase, have you talked with anyone at SWA to confirm that the Website is correct on the Type Rating requirement? It seems the individual base websites still reflect the previous policy of requiring the type before the interview.

 

[737tanker]

I had a sim instructor on my jumpseat this week & he said that they've been told in the training center that the Jan classes have been pushed back to Feb. He didn't know why. We had been told to expect the new checklists in Oct, however I talked with a check airman this week & he said that the check airman haven't seen the new checklist yet & Flt Ops wants their input before we start to use the new checklists. So my guess is that the classes are delayed until the new checklist are finalized. We are still planning on hiring well over 400 pilots in 2004.