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SWA LF's continue slump

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lowecur said:
While other LCC's continue to grow at a much faster pace, SWA just can't seem to find the sweet spot on the LF front. I see they have put the midwest on sale to try and get some marketshare back. In the last quarter the emphasis has been on maintaining price and it should show in their 2nd quarter profit numbers, but Gary and Co are now starting to worry about losing market.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/daw009.html?.v=17

Bankrupt UAL Corp.'s (UALAQ: news, chart, profile) United Airlines said that systemwide traffic in June fell 1% while capacity for the month fell 3.4%. Load factor rose 2.1 percentage points to 88.1%, the company said. United's Pacific routes saw a large increase in traffic while North American routes slipped.

AMR Corp. (AMR: news, chart, profile) said that American Airlines' traffic in June rose 7.8% from last year while load factor increased 3.8 percentage points to 82.8%. Domestic traffic increased 5.1% while international traffic jumped almost 13.6%. Capacity rose 2.8% overall but domestic capacity was 0.4% lower.


You're right Lowecur, Southwest is in trouble and the Wright Amendment should be repealed immediately to bail the out. Otherwise bankruptcy may soon follow.
 
apdsm said:
Really, did they tell you that?No, Herb thinks I'm a twit! But I think maybe todays sale kinda let's me read between the lines.:rolleyes:

Right, they just realized that within the last couple of months. What a rude awakening for them to finally learn the importance of market share after all these years.
I think they are just starting to realize they can't have it both ways. Check out Jetblue and Airtrans LFs along with their growth this month. You think that hasn't got ol Herbie's attention. My guess is even AWA is kicking butt. Time to pull that Airline show, it's kill'n em.:)
 
UAL--RPMs North America

6,348,217 6,867,195 -7.6%

SWA--RPMs

5,432,024 4,955,951 9.6 %
 
Lowecur,

When I saw the news release this morning with the load factor drop, my first thought was "I wonder how long it will take Lowecur to post some comment about how the other LCC's are beating us on market share?"

The answer, apparently, was about 30 minutes. Don't look now but you're getting even more predictable than usual. :)

T1
 
Go Lance!!

lowecur said:
While other LCC's continue to grow at a much faster pace, SWA just can't seem to find the sweet spot on the LF front. I see they have put the midwest on sale to try and get some marketshare back. In the last quarter the emphasis has been on maintaining price and it should show in their 2nd quarter profit numbers, but Gary and Co are now starting to worry about losing market.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/daw009.html?.v=17

This is like saying Lance Armstrong needs to ride fatser to win by an even bigger margin. Geesh...
 
lowecur said:
I think they are just starting to realize they can't have it both ways. Check out Jetblue and Airtrans LFs along with their growth this month. You think that hasn't got ol Herbie's attention. My guess is even AWA is kicking butt. Time to pull that Airline show, it's kill'n em.:)


You are right, seriously, that JetBlue and Airtran deserve some recognition. Good on them.
 
UAL--RPMs North America

6,348,217 6,867,195 -7.6%

SWA--RPMs

5,432,024 4,955,951 9.6 %

UAL pulled down North America about 13% and increased international about the same - a smart move in my opinion. Post your Asian numbers so we can compare those.
 
usually not the cheapest on advance purchase

lowecur said:
I agree Enigma. They definitely know how to manage their pricing and capacity. However, they are beginning to realize that it's important to maintain marketshare against those legacys and LCCs that will be a viable threat in the future. With more and more of the public using the internet to price shop, it's no longer taken for granted that SWA has the lowest fare. I think even the unsophisticated buyer that SWA has catered to is shopping around. They will need to be on their toes in order to maintain the right balance between price and loyalty.

I have to say that anytime I have been traveling between city pairs Southwest serves, they have never been the cheapest. I usually book a couple to a few weeks in advance, so I guess their real economy might be in the walk up ticket. I can usually find a ticket for a hundred or more less on cross country flights. It seems like they find the balance between price and load that continues to make boat loads of money, good for them.-kingaira90
 
Maybe these airlines with slumping LF's should introduce the "you pay what we pay" deal. It seems to be working for the auto industry!
 
What good is market share if you lose money by having it? SWA doesn't believe in losing money just to have braggin rights on market share. I believe Delta has market share in ATL, at a loss. USAirways has it in PHL PIT & CLT -$$$. Need I say more.
 

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