SWA wants to fly from HOU to MEX and SouthAmerica

[Bake]

Well, I have only been at SWA for 10 years so I can't speak before that, but the only place we went from IAH was to LUV. Never CLE. All I ever flew into there was 200's from Luv

 

[FlyinGuy]

Stop telling him the facts. He will call you a liar and spout off something irrelevant.

 

[iflyhigh72]

Southwest Plan Advances for Flights Abroad at Hobby



Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) (LUV) won backing from Houstons aviation director to add international flights at the citys secondary airport after larger competitor United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) (UAL) objected.
The proposal to expand at William P. Hobby Airport would add 1.5 million passengers a year, 10,000 jobs and an annual economic benefit of $1.6 billion for the metropolitan area, according to a memo today to Mayor Annise Parker from Mario Diaz, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport is Houstons main overseas gateway and the biggest hub for United, which along with its regional partners controls about 80 percent of passenger traffic there, while Southwest has about 90 percent of traffic at Hobby, where flights are chiefly domestic.
Parker will review Diazs analysis before deciding whether to accept the recommendation, which also needs approval from the City Council and U.S. regulators, the airport system said on its website. United asked the mayor last week to defer any decision on Southwests request pending further study.
Southwest proposed spending as much as $100 million for a five-gate terminal with customs facilities, breaking with a history of U.S.-only flying. New Hobby flights would include Mexico, the Caribbean and elsewhere in Latin America as Dallas- based Southwest absorbs the 2011 purchase of AirTran Holdings Inc. (AAI) (AAI), which already serves some of those destinations.
Fundamentally Flawed

The assumptions in the city of Houstons analysis are fundamentally flawed, Christen David, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based United, said today in an e-mail. Uniteds own, unfinished assessment shows that Southwests plan would significantly harm Intercontinental, David said.
United Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smisek, who ran Houston-based Continental Airlines before its 2010 merger with United, wrote to Parker to request the delay and told employees that the airlines Houston hub would suffer serious injury.
Hobbys expansion would imperil the airlines $700 million investment at its Intercontinental hub and could result in 1,300 United job cuts in Houston, Smisek wrote in an April 4 memo.
I didnt expect United to agree with it, Bob Montgomery, Southwests vice president for properties, said in an interview. Thats why the city did an independent study. I expect whatever study is done by whoever, it will find objection from United. They enjoy a near monopoly in that marketplace and I believe they want to keep that monopoly.
New flights could start in mid- to late 2015, he said.
Intercontinental is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Hobby and is closer to some of the newer business and residential developments on Houstons northern and western fringes. Hobby airport is in the citys southeastern quadrant.
While Intercontinental has been home for decades to most of the regions international flights, overseas flying isnt banned at Hobby, and both Southwest and Continental expressed interest in adding such flights there as recently as 2003, Diaz said on a conference call with reporters.
Two airlines in Mexico have also expressed interest in a new international terminal at Hobby, Diaz said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at [email protected]

 

[Flopgut]

Well, I have only been at SWA for 10 years so I can't speak before that, but the only place we went from IAH was to LUV. Never CLE. All I ever flew into there was 200's from Luv

You guys just don't remember this stuff.

SWA went after CAL with flights from Hobby (and maybe a few other places) to CLE, and CAL went right back at you with flights to Hobby from CLE. Yes, the only place you flew to out of IAH was LUV. When we had to defend CLE went went to Hobby. You backed down and as part of the agreement we back down, you left IAH.

 

[Flopgut]

You need your "competition to be predictable", eh? Seriously?

Yeah, there should be some rules we all have to stick to. There should be a level playing field and an equal market. 99% of the time you've won on a level playing field. But when it's been in doubt (like now and when you were a startup) SWA has sought an airport deal that favors them.

The city knows this is a bad deal for IAH. They just want to retialiate for UAL hdqts being moved. They are going to cut their nose off to spite thier face. GK is doing what you guys always do, show up where the vultures are/or there is blood in the water

I'm hoping we go to Hobby and we slug this out.

 

[waveflyer]

What's that got to do with intl out of hobby, flop? Could you link it up, or do you just want to keep sounding crazy?

 

[Double Shot]

why would anyone go to cleveland from houston? Flop you say CAL put a plane on that leg every 30 minutes. I call bs. I would love to see that schedule you speak of. I say it never happenend...at least not into hobby.

 

[Flopgut]

Stop telling him the facts. He will call you a liar and spout off something irrelevant.

If I called someone a liar, I apologize.

A lot of you guys on this thread I do hold in pretty high regard. I'd just like to verbalize my position on what SWA is doing, and maybe make a case here that when this thing is all done, I'd like to hear one of you guys admit: I can't believe we did that....

 

[outerlimits]

why would anyone go to cleveland from houston? Flop you say CAL put a plane on that leg every 30 minutes. I call bs. I would love to see that schedule you speak of. I say it never happenend...at least not into hobby.

You obviously no nothin...... Cleveland is more sot after than NYC.

Tell him Flop.

Home of The Cleveland Browns.

Ops, even they skipped town on a dark night

 

[Flopgut]

What's that got to do with intl out of hobby, flop? Could you link it up, or do you just want to keep sounding crazy?

I may have to just keep sounding crazy. Is anybody not following my train of thought? SWA flying intl out of HOU=bad. SWA flying intl out of IAH=good. That's it basically. Let's have a steel cage death match and see who wins? But that means you have to actually get into the cage. No more airport scams!! I don't think anybody at SWA understands how much heartache was caused by the Love Field debacle and how we don't want to go through that again! Are there no more Braniff guys flying there?

GK is trying to wreck my airport (it's a marathon like endeavor, but he's at the start line), we are trying to stop him from wrecking the airport. Question: Do you think the city would be considering this if CAL had not been merged with UAL and hdqtrs moved?

I will do some google research. I remember our CLE fight taking place around 2004. That's getting to be a few years ago. It was brought back up in CAL internal media because the marketing guy who orchestrated it left us and went to DAL in around 08, I think. (they were going to pay him whatever he wanted, but Atlanta was his home town)

 

[Flopgut]

Code share bro, code share.


CAL did not fly it.

I love outsourcing

It was MD80s, CAL flew it.

 

[list2002]

At least United gave the Mayor over 8 hours of delay to ponder her decision. WTG Jeff.

 

[SKC]

Heh, your airport. That's good stuff right there.

I can't quite tell if you're just a person that is so arrogant to think that everyone should conform to your rules, or someone that is so afraid of one more bad thing happening to your company that you're just circling the wagons and using the "competition only IAH" as a excuse.

 

[outerlimits]

It was MD80s, CAL flew it.

I think your wrong, but either way who is flying now.

Thanks ALPA

 

[27 driver]

So Flop, what you want is another Wright Amendment situation. What is wrong with starting service where there is none. It's called good business. Southwest has grown to what it is buy servicing under served markets and bringing prices down. Its called competition and its good. If the city of HOU doesn't like it they(the consumer) will not purchase the product. Feel free to come to HOU and compete. Relax a little. It will be many years before LUV serves anything but near international.

Future LUV Pilot