SWA tops AA in pax traffic

[satpak77]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070816/southwest_traffic.html?.v=3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Southwest Airlines Co. is on pace to unseat American Airlines this year as the world's biggest airline, measured by passenger traffic.
The domestic-only discount carrier already has eclipsed American's combined domestic and international traffic during the first five months of 2007, according to a government tally released Thursday.

 

[vixin]

Yep and SWA stock goes down AMR's stock goes up. Go figure.

 

[SennaP1]

****JOKE ALERT****

When Southwest is full, the _______ are empty.

 

[GuppyWN]

I know...... the TERMINALS are empty. imp:

Gup

 

[skydash]

****JOKE ALERT****

When Southwest is full, the _______ are empty.

Yea,but as I heard Herb himself say..."there's plenty of green in those________"

 

[Big Slick]

Is AE included in the count?

I didn't see anything in the article about whether or not American Eagle was included in the count. If not, than you are comparing apples to oranges.

I fly in Texas a lot and I see American Eagle, Continental Express and Southwest at lots of airports around here - HRL, MAF, AMA, LBB, CRP, etc. (All the places Gen Lee likes to overnight!) I only see AA at the big airports.

Not that it really matters, just curious. IF SWA is flying more folks than AA and AE combined, that really is quite a feat.

 

[satpak77]

I didn't see anything in the article about whether or not American Eagle was included in the count. If not, than you are comparing apples to oranges.

I fly in Texas a lot and I see American Eagle, Continental Express and Southwest at lots of airports around here - HRL, MAF, AMA, LBB, CRP, etc. (All the places Gen Lee likes to overnight!) I only see AA at the big airports.

Not that it really matters, just curious. IF SWA is flying more folks than AA and AE combined, that really is quite a feat.

Since Eagle is not a separate company, from a Wall-Street perspective (you can't buy American Eagle stock), and given that the title of the article is "...beats AMR" I think they are including Eagle.

Of course, I could be wrong, but thats my interpretation.

 

[Big Slick]

I would bet that it does not include Eagle.

SWA has 500 airplanes.

AA has 699 airplanes.
AE has 289 airplanes.
699+289=988 total airplanes.

SWA is more effiecient than AMR, but it would be hard to fly more passengers with half as many planes. Of course, the AE planes are smaller than a 737. But, a lot of the AA planes are bigger.

Since SWA is directly competing with AE in a lot of markets, this is sort of an uneven comparison. Apples to oranges.

Just my guess.

They should have titled the article, "Legacy airlines replaced by low cost carriers."

 

[SWA GUY]

Since SWA is directly competing with AE in a lot of markets, this is sort of an uneven comparison. Apples to oranges.

SWA competes with the automobile.

 

[GuppyWN]

Big Slick. Can't stand it can you? And yes. Eagle is included.

Gup

 

[CF34-3B1]

****JOKE ALERT****

When Southwest is full, the _______ are empty.

Um, the other airlines' planes are empty?

 

[AA717driver]

Who cares?

Who gets paid the most? SWA wins...for now. TC

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Read a little closer fellas. SWA flies more passengers than AA out of LBB.

 

[satpak77]

here is the actual info from DOT

http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2007/bts038_07/html/bts038_07.html

http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2007/bts038_07/html/bts038_07.html#table_03

Southwest Airlines carried more total system passengers for the first five months than any other U.S. airline, overtaking American Airlines, which has carried the most system passengers for the past five years.

July 2007 info, Straight from AA themselves

http://www.aa.com/content/amrcorp/pressReleases/2007_08/02_aejultrf.jhtml

American Eagle boarded 2.0 million passengers in July, down 1.0 percent from July 2006.

http://www.aa.com/content/amrcorp/pressReleases/2007_08/02_aajultrf.jhtml

American boarded 9.1 million passengers in July.

So we all agree AMR was responsible for 11.1 million pax in July 2007? Correct?

Here is the press release from SWA, on July 2007 traffic

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070802/lath039.html?.v=101

It appears that SWA carried 9.6 M pax in July, which that month was less than the 11.1 M (but close to it) carried by AMR (which we observed indeed is Eagle + AA above).

So, me thinks Southwest beat all of AMR in the recent report of "SWA tops AA"

 

[satpak77]

They should have titled the article, "Legacy airlines replaced by low cost carriers."

or it could have been "the customer chooses and SWA wins"

Dell Computer got started in Michael Dell's dormroom. If I was on a budget and needed a PC, and Mikey could sell me a proven, reliable, good system, for cheaper than Big Blue IBM, hey, my money goes to Mikey.

That story could be called "Low Cost computer companies unfairly bankrupt legacy IBM" I suppose