SWA food for thought/rumors..

[MLBWINGBORN]

One of the things i have found to be interesting about SWA is what they say versus what they do..

Id like to share a few things that have been thrown around the offices lately..

Total of three new dispatchers have completed probation and havnt been put into the schedule yet..Eight more dispatchers have just been hired..They are currently making room for several more consouls in the dispatch office..Dispatch currently has more than enough capacity for current needs..Why hire ten more folks than you need..

:rolleyes
The training department has been asked to try to figure out seating for 28 per class..The room will normally hold 24..We have 26 in my class now..
They are adding instructors as fast as they seem to be able to right now..Two more in class behind me.. Ive heard a total of eight have been hired so far..The training dept has plans for 26 per class every two weeks thru August...The People dept are saying 20 per class in March..

Flight ops is currently over staffed with pilots..You can see this because of little or no open time to be picked up..The reserves arnt flying much at all right now..They just forced nearly a whole class of captains to upgrade that dont have anyplace to go yet..
They rumors are min of 450 to be hired and may be as high as 600..Why hire pilots if you dont need them?

Remember all those planes in the desert?I was told that there are only two left and i rode on one the other day that had ten hours on it and was just put in service..We were told that they are going to take all the planes scheduled for delivery in 2002.

If you think about places where airlines have reduced service and where SWA operates it seems pretty obvious as to where expansion is going to take place..
Ual,AWA,USA have reduced service in PHX,ORD,BWI..Hmmm.. BWI is going to have 20 more gates just for SWA in 1stQ 003 plus all the current gates..

SWA just started hiring a total of 4000 new employees for 2002..Yes..Thats right...4000..?????

Some where deep in all the paperwork for the Gov help money was a term that basicly said that any of the airlines that took the money and reduced service would have to restore service back to pre-911 levels by a certain date..I want to say that date was March 13th..I cant remember..Help me out here..

Anyway..The average service reduction was somewhere around 20% per airline..Those that couldnt operate at those levels would somehow lose the right to operate at those levels..Just wondering how many routes could be picked up if you just happen to have planes and pilots ready to go on short notice after that date????Hmmmmm..

The FA training dept is pushing thru classes of 250 per...Hmmm..

If im close to right about the date...I will bet you a beer that SWA is going to have massive growth in the spring of 2002..Summer at the latest if 2ndQ is as good as the past..

Again..As always...this is just a bunch of stuff ive put together..Sorta like piecing together a house out of a pile of used buliding supplies..You only pick up the best pieces to build the house and the rest is junk..

So take your pick..

MLBWINGBORN

 

[AlbieF15]

Its a plot to take over the world. Resitance is futile...you will be assimilated (if you don't work for AirTran or JetBlue). Don't act surprised...its been the plot all along.

Good luck guys. Have fun. You have a great company. A good buddy chose AA over SWA last summer. I'm sure he hates looking at the paper today. I hope he gets another shot.

Save us a jumpseat when you can...we'll bring cookies.

Albie

 

[V1Cutt]

Forget the cookies - get us your jumpseat back.
SWA MEM dweller

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

ML,


That's pretty interesting. SWA's history is in outperforming the rest of the industry particularly when things aren't going so good. If there is such a deadline for restoring service, I'm sure the other carrriers that can't make that deadline will put political pressue on the government to extend that date. Plus, it may be that they want to meet those service requirements thru the use of their wholly owned regionals or regional partners.

Having no idea of the actual requirements that may be in place in the government agreement, it sounds as if SWA, which does not have a history of overextending their growth rate is preparing for an explosion of growth. It would be nice to know what the ramifications are to airlines that do not meet pre 9/11 levels by the specified date; loss of gates? All based on that deadline coming to fruition. Not to be greedy but that sure would be nice for my shares of LUV!!! I'd bet Alaska, if they are poised for handling additional growth would also try to take advantage of this type of opportunity.


Mr. Irrelevant