SWA Interviews

[Just thinking]

"800 captains is roughly half of the number of AirTran pilots brought aboard. Adding 1600 new pilots added equals about 800 new captains. Do you have a problem with that math?"

Math is just fine. How quickly you forgot that his holiness GK has dumped over half of the aircraft that those 1600 pilots were operating..... oopsy.... slipped your mind? Watch the line values continue to dilute with the excess Captains on property.

Yes they did purposely front load Captains..... when have they ever upgraded that many Captains in two years without an aircraft order of biblical proportions?

Thanks for caring Bubba. It will be the uninformed and ignorant ones like you that will be complaining the loudest. Keep walking around with your eyes wide shut. GK has given the RSW pilots what Chase promised them. Now GK is coming for his pound of flesh and you will probably be all puffed up and indignant over the fact that GK does not give a teeny tiny piece of poop about you or the RSW pilots or the FAT pilots. Talk about whining. How is the pace of the negotiations working out for you?

He has the side letters signed that will allow him the room to make plenty of money without any increase in cost from the pilot group.

"Too bad we can't be run as well as AirTran was."............

Yeah, too bad. Maybe SWA would not be on the bottom for on time performance and at the top for mishandled baggage claims.

 

[SWA Bubba]

"800 captains is roughly half of the number of AirTran pilots brought aboard. Adding 1600 new pilots added equals about 800 new captains. Do you have a problem with that math?"

Math is just fine. How quickly you forgot that his holiness GK has dumped over half of the aircraft that those 1600 pilots were operating..... oopsy.... slipped your mind? Watch the line values continue to dilute with the excess Captains on property.

It's not just captains, it's pilots. 1600 pilots equals 800 captains and 800 FOs. He hasn't "dumped over half the aircraft," he's in the process of divesting the 717s, and in fact has started very slowly. Those 717s going to Delta are being "replaced" by used -700s and -300s that aren't being retired as originally planned.... ergo, there's a seat for all the AirTran guys. The "flat fleet" outlook includes total Southwest and AirTran combined. Not just Southwest, and not less the 88 717s that GK didn't want. Looks like that part slipped your mind. Oopsie. You must be getting old and senile or something.

Yes they did purposely front load Captains..... when have they ever upgraded that many Captains in two years without an aircraft order of biblical proportions?

Uh.... never before. But they've also never before absorbed 1600 pilots. You think we should just bring on 1600 FOs, rather than have 800 of each? How the hell would that work? Sounds like your plan would work out to 800 2-FO crews that can't legally fly an airplane. What a great idea.

It seems pretty obvious that you have no idea on how airline staffing works. You need to have roughly equivalent numbers of pilots for each seat. Yet you still cling to the stupid notion that GK is purposely overpaying too many captains just to spite you. When you get over here, ask the captains on Southwest reserve, that are getting beat up on every reserve block, if they think we have too many captains. Until then I suppose you'll keep pushing your black helicopter conspiracy theories about GK throwing money away just to piss you off. God, it must suck to be you.

Bubba

 

[SWA Bubba]

Thanks for caring Bubba. It will be the uninformed and ignorant ones like you that will be complaining the loudest. Keep walking around with your eyes wide shut. GK has given the RSW pilots what Chase promised them. Now GK is coming for his pound of flesh and you will probably be all puffed up and indignant over the fact that GK does not give a teeny tiny piece of poop about you or the RSW pilots or the FAT pilots. Talk about whining. How is the pace of the negotiations working out for you?

Uh, the only one whining is you. I'm very happy. Oh wait,... you're whining now, but predicting that I'll be whining later. Got it. Good one, JT; you really told me. And the pace of negotiations is going about average for us, thanks for asking. I would have to say though, that it would be considered relatively speedy compared to how long YOUR last negotiations took. Have you already forgotten about that?

"Too bad we can't be run as well as AirTran was."............

Yeah, too bad. Maybe SWA would not be on the bottom for on time performance and at the top for mishandled baggage claims.

Yeah, too bad alright. Maybe we could have lost lots tons of money over the years and furloughed pilots a few times. Another stellar argument of yours.

Bubba

 

[ron burgundy]

Ya right. Like - I'm so sure.

It's quotes like these that show us how FOS you are.

Quotes like these indicate the mentality of a 16 yr. old.
Unfortunately,I don't think that it was sarcasm..lost in text.

 

[Just thinking]

I will be the first to tell you that Airtran was improperly managed. It was not the end all and be all of airlines. Many things were a constant battle. We were poorly represented by fellow pilots that ran for union positions. Management embraced an adverse relationship with the pilot group. We were continually pitted against other work groups within the airline. Schedulers would ask you for a favor and then screw you out of pay the next day.

The pilots worked very hard to make the operation a success every day. They took care of each other and supported other work groups and forged a team mentality to get the job done to take care of the customers. Huge efforts from the ramp made drastic changes over the years and they became proud of their accomplishments for on time pushes and low rate of mishandled bags. A single agent would handled tickets, board the plane, operate the jet bridge and handle mis-connects. Occasionally you would see them driving the tug at some of the smaller stations. When Club 169 was furloughed the rest of the pilot group adopted families for the Christmas holiday. We worked hard to make it successful IN SPITE OF MANAGEMENTS EFFORTS.

Airtran was not in the same place in the growth cycle as SWA at the time of the purchase on 10/27/2010. They did have the quickest growth to 100 aircraft of any airline until Jet Blue eclipsed the mark. I would venture to bet that Airtran outpaced SWA for growth and profitablility if you compared the first 10-15 years of operation. We were a profitable airline with a good product. Would Airtran survive the next 15 years in the current environment? Maybe.... big maybe. Will SWA be around for the next 15 years... probably so.

Your efforts to cheapen the the efforts and successes that Airtran accomplished are noted. We operated and competed and did well. Take a moment to read the financials and you will see the airline did not lose tons of money over the years.... they were successful and did well in economically challenging times. The pilot group is professional and proud. We succeeded in spite of management and took great pride in the product.

Herb built a great airline and worked diligently to protect what he made. Where was SWA in the first 15 years of its existence? Scrambling to grow and become larger. Now here you are 40 years later and you still don't have international. Many things you do are great and do very well. Training department is outstanding. Schedulers are easy to talk to and credit for three and four day trips is great. Do I trust GK or management? Not as far as I can spit. Do I think that they were in collusion with the union? Yes. Can I change anything that has transpired over the past three years? Nope. Will I continue to come to work and do my job as a professional? Certainly so. Will the paychecks continue until I retire in 17 years? I expect so.
Do I really care what you think? you very much. nite nite

 

[canyonblue]

I would venture to bet that Airtran outpaced SWA for growth and profitablility if you compared the first 10-15 years of operation.

Sorry, part of our first 10-15 years we had to deal with a regulated industry, and growth only came as the government saw fit. Even when we tried to get around that by flying inside Texas, we were met with resistance by a collusion of government and Legacy Airline interference. I'd gladly take the '90's to start an airline, sure as hell more easier.

 

[Kermit_D_Frog]

Quotes like these indicate the mentality of a 16 yr. old.
Unfortunately,I don't think that it was sarcasm..lost in text.

Ok Corky.

 

[GhettoBeechjet]

PCL and Lear have quit posting because they are preparing documents and testimony for the inevitable lawsuit to be filed in Federal Court.

Someone said this should be over and we should all move on. This is not over by a longshot, as a matter of fact we have barely started. We have rounds of litigation, and whole careers of guys who will be pissed off because they didn't get what they thought they were entitled to out of this shotgun wedding. We have many years of resentment towards unions, union leaders, company leaders, and other crew members to look forward to. Also we most likely will get a few rounds of bar and crew room fisticuffs and thousands of hours of dysfunctional cockpits along the way. This won't really be over until every pilot that was on either list or in the pool when the deal was announced is dead. Then maybe it will finally be over.

 

[tankerhead]

Holy crap, you are depressing.

 

[dollacrackho]

PCL and Lear have quit posting because they are preparing documents and testimony for the inevitable lawsuit to be filed in Federal Court.

Someone said this should be over and we should all move on. This is not over by a longshot, as a matter of fact we have barely started. We have rounds of litigation, and whole careers of guys who will be pissed off because they didn't get what they thought they were entitled to out of this shotgun wedding. We have many years of resentment towards unions, union leaders, company leaders, and other crew members to look forward to. Also we most likely will get a few rounds of bar and crew room fisticuffs and thousands of hours of dysfunctional cockpits along the way. This won't really be over until every pilot that was on either list or in the pool when the deal was announced is dead. Then maybe it will finally be over.

I've been on this board for 10 years now and I do believe you win the award for most miserable sounding human . Yikes . You sound like usapa material. Do you have that condition where you repeatedly bang your head against a wall for no reason?