SWA SEC 8-K 19Sep07 . . . thoughts?

[8vATE]

USAIR has alot of cash on hand. As soon as they finalize the contract which should be very soon they will start building the empire. Southwest empiracle leaders are raising cash to fight off the onslaught. Grab some popcorn, this will be the AVIATION Battle of the BULGE!

Two points..

There is NO airline named USAir.
A callsign yes.. but no airline.

And you're smoking something good if you think there will be a "contract" anytime soon!

 

[CF34-3B1]

Does anyone know what some of these rumored 'targets' are worth? What's the market cap on say, AirTran, Alaska, WestJet, or whoever else people are speculating we're about to buy. Seems like we oughtta figure out if we're even in the ball park with 1/2 a billion plus what ever our cash on hand was.

 

[Lear70]

AirTran - $949.18 Million

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=aai

------------

Alaska Air Group - $979.14 Million

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ALK

 

[NewmanF16]

Reading this post reminds me why never to take financial advice from a pilot. What company in the world would mortgage aircraft to buy stock(even their own). We are going to buy some tangible asset(Airtran)IMO.

I've read that when interest rates are low enough, it is can be cheaper for a corporation to take a loan and buy back stock than pay dividends.

...I'm not a financial guru, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[CF34-3B1]

AirTran - $949.18 Million

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=aai

------------

Alaska Air Group - $979.14 Million

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ALK

Thanks.

So for less than 2 Bil, we can buy both.

 

[Lear70]

Or, for $1 Billion, part-cash, part-stock, you could buy either one...

Or neither. I didn't stay at a HIE last night, so WTH do I know?

 

[atafan]

Think Internationally...

Not AirTran or Alaska. I think the purchase will be Global Aero Logistics (GAL) and operated as a separate subsidiary.

Of course I'm almost always wrong.

One thing for sure.

Whatever happens, it will not be anything we can come up here on any bulletin board.

 

[TOGA]

As of 31 March '07, Frontier's "Net Tangible Assets" total just under $210m. Plus, Mexico routes in/out of Denver and several SWA-heavy cities (MDW, MCI, BNA, etc.). Hmmmm.

 

[HalinTexas]

Think Internationally...

Not AirTran or Alaska. I think the purchase will be Global Aero Logistics (GAL) and operated as a separate subsidiary.

Of course I'm almost always wrong.

One thing for sure.

Whatever happens, it will not be anything we can come up here on any bulletin board.

More likely only part of GAL. I don't think SWA wants anything to do with DC10's and L10's.

The legacies that are making money are doing it with Int'l ops. There is still too much domestic capacity, so buying a domestic only (FL) or domestic/near Int'l (AK) doesn't make a whole lot of sense (cents). If SWA is going to increase revenue they need to go Int'l. Near and far. And they need to do it cheaply. So buying a small carrier that has all the authorizations needed makes the mose sense.

I believe that it might just be NAA with some orders for whatever 767-300's they can find. (NAA has 5 plus 5 757's) Not to mention that NAA pilots will willingly be stapled to the bottom of SWAPA's list.

I could be wrong as well. Frequently, that's the case.

Then again, SWA may go a completely different direction with all this "credit." Like no where in particular.

 

[mdf]

United. DEN, IAD, and now SFO. Especially for Int'l ops. They have a few of them over there.

 

[SELFloadingCRGO]

As I've asked before, why on earth would SWA want anything to do with ATL?
I also think that merging or stapling over 1600 pilots would put the whole SWA culture at stake. Not that the AirTran guys and girls aren't a great bunch of people, but it would be a bit risky imo.

Instead of an acquisition of another carrier my guess could be they may be getting ready to fit all their planes with Direct TV and or WiFi? I think that WiFi will be the next big thing for airlines to capitialize on for revenue streams. Not sure what a retrofit of over 500 aircraft would cost though.

Just my .02 cents...

SLC

 

[atafan]

United. DEN, IAD, and now SFO. Especially for Int'l ops.

Not like there's any corporate culture issues or anything. :laugh:

 

[BobbyB]

Don't forget that SWA is sitting on about $1.5B of stock that they have bought back over the past couple years.

 

[bravodude]

As I've asked before, why on earth would SWA want anything to do with ATL?
I also think that merging or stapling over 1600 pilots would put the whole SWA culture at stake. Not that the AirTran guys and girls aren't a great bunch of people, but it would be a bit risky imo.

Instead of an acquisition of another carrier my guess could be they may be getting ready to fit all their planes with Direct TV and or WiFi? I think that WiFi will be the next big thing for airlines to capitialize on for revenue streams. Not sure what a retrofit of over 500 aircraft would cost though.

Just my .02 cents...

SLC

I was in class a couple of moths ago and we had some finance people come in and talk to us. We asked about ATL, EWR, LGA, JFK. They told us that we would luv to go to all these cities the only problem is no gate space. when asked about satalite airports they said there would be no way to convince somebody from spokane that swf is new york. So i think if there was a way to get gates we would be all over it.

 

[capt. megadeth]

It would nice to see us pick up Alaskan Airlines they have gotten rid of all of the 80's but 4 of them. Also they go to Mexico and Canada so swa could start flying "International" and we would not have to start up issues. And we would pick up Alaska nice stop also I guess the way they route the flights to Mexico no etops. The one issue may be horizon air just food for thought I would like to see swa do some thing so our stock picks up and so we can keep a good thing going.

Well, that might be great for SWA but I'm sure Horizon would be f***ed since they have turboprops. SWA didn't want to codeshare with turboprops before so I am sure they won't want to own any.

 

[Splert]

Sep. 20--Southwest Airlines Co., under pressure from some investors to increase its financial leverage, plans to borrow $500 million against its fleet of aircraft.

Southwest is issuing "enhanced equipment trust certificates," or EETCs, secured by the value of 16 Boeing 737-700 jets delivered between Nov. 1, 2006, and May 31. The appraised value of the airplanes is $634 million, according to disclosures filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly and chief financial officer Laura Wright recently acknowledged that the company's ratio of debt to equity was below ideal levels, although Southwest prides itself on keeping its debt levels far below those of its major competitors.

Some shareholders have been pushing to increase its share buybacks or otherwise increase shareholder return.

Southwest shares rose 6 cents Wednesday to $15.13. They're down 25 cents since Jan. 1 and down $1.64 from a year ago.

Credit: The Dallas Morning News

 

[ultrarunner]

The last time I saw a balance sheet we already had a large amount of CASH laying around. Will be interested to see what/who we buy with all this money!!!

Hopefully they will buy back some stock. Looking at your 5-year chart, your investors haven't had much to brag about.

 

[NuGuy]

Nah, you guys are thinking in the wrong direction. They are going to buy Greyhound, just to make really sure that every trailer park in the country is empty...

Nu

 

[GuppyWN]

Like I said earler, dirtying up the balance sheet.

I like the move. Gary Kelly is in this for the long run, not propping us up to drain the cash and run.

Gup

 

[Skank]

It would nice to see us pick up Alaskan Airlines they have gotten rid of all of the 80's but 4 of them. Also they go to Mexico and Canada so swa could start flying "International" and we would not have to start up issues. And we would pick up Alaska nice stop also I guess the way they route the flights to Mexico no etops. The one issue may be horizon air just food for thought I would like to see swa do some thing so our stock picks up and so we can keep a good thing going.

Bingo! I'm surprised that nobody else has done this.