I personally don't understand why SWAPA tied growth with a codeshare agreement. I would have made an agreement that was tied to how profitable the codeshare agreement was and allowed the pilots to participate with those earnings above and beyond profit sharing. If the codeshare over a particular route was so profitable that SWA was paying out too much to the pilots and SWA could operate the route then start flying it under your colors.
by atafan
I'm surprised that ATA guys can't understand why SWA pilots are spooked by codeshares in general and ATA's in particular. ATA mainly because it is the only one we are doing, so it is the one to worry about. I'd be much happier if all the marketing/codeshare between the companies stopped soon and both went on their separate ways.
In general, codeshare means non-SWA pilots are flying passengers that bought tickets on the SWA website which is advertised using SWA dollars, etc. Also, a passenger may go from LA to Hawaii back to LA and never see an SWA employee although they have an SWA ticket.
For a company that prides itself on 'culture' and the customer experience, that is a real problem. We are outsourcing the big thing we have to offer, the SWA experience.
And for what, some incremental revenue.
You mention tying the codeshare to profitsharing. Profitsharing has been somewhere around 6-8% in the last few years, 6-8% of 35 million (the last year I heard management break out ATA revenue, not profit, but revenue) times our 5% Net income margin divided by 33,000 employees is jack. compared to upgrades and more flying for SWA pilots.
I'm not any happier about how the whole ATA codeshare started than anyone else. It was my impression that it was either Airtran's offer (which would have shut ATA down) or ours, it seems it worked out okay but more than one pilot around here quote's Gary Kelly's memo "all i want for xmas is some gates at MDW" which is basically how he said, don't worry, nothing here beyond getting some gates. and here we are 4? years later, expanding codeshare to beat the band.
I don't blame ATA guys if they are pissed because we took their gates etc, just understand that this SWA pilot at least, is ready for each company to go their own way and sink or swim.
Bottom line is that if SWA can't make money flying our customers on our planes with our pilots and FAs then we have some adjustments to make and codeshares just muddy the water.
We're not hub-and-spoke, we don't need feed and if Gary Kelly wants to go international, I suspect we can do it pretty darned quick w/o outsourcing it.
That is one SWA pilot's opinion. nothing more.
I offer it not to be combative or to be disparaging about ATA, they seem like a great company with great employees, but to explain to the ATA pilots who keep asking why SWA pilots don't like the codeshare. This is why I don't like it.
