SWA reports $159M profit for 2nd Q

[lowecur]

Lowecur,

I must be missing something. If there were no hedges then wouldn't the operating profit have been 81 mil before taxes? If there were no profit on hedges how would you be taxed on something that didn't exist?

My bad, you're right. Add the other income of $21M and you're close to $100M net income. Subtract $35M for corp taxes, and SWA is profitable to the tune of $65M. Profit sharing would have been around $25M less also boosting the bottom line.

Taz, you're the man. My apologies to all at SWA.......Great Quarter!!!

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

2Q 2005 2Q 2004
Salaries, wages, and benefits 667 622 7.2 %
Size of fleet at period-end 434 405 7.2 %

The payroll grew at the same rate as the fleet, doesn't sound too bloated to me.

Lowecur looks at SWA like an accountant. Salaries, wages, and benefits look like the easiest target. Cut them 10% and you suddenly have $66M more in profit. Before taxes

Keep in mind there are no pension issues. A high retirement rate is all good for SWA. Newer pilots arrive on lower payscale. For DAL, NWA and AA it is mostly a drain. Until other airlines with debt and pension issues have them totally resolved this pay can't be judged bloated. The real question is will the pay get high then stay there even if the revenue does cooperate? Right now you are looking forward and making too many assumptions. And, yes, I too would like to focus on the future and wonder what to assume. The pilot group, for one, is mostly still humble enough to make the right call if and when the time comes. We can break the mold, just not like JetBlue has.

Comparing everyone to JetBlue is too confining. JetBlue employees are already on $80/barrel wages. But they haven't cornered the market on making money in the airline business just yet. They trail Southwest in revenue per passenger.

In the go-go 1990's many airlines had their markets and made money. I think there is room for more than one in the future too. And, unless JetBlue suddenly acquires 600 or so planes, it will take them some time dominate the U.S market.