This is why passenger airlines aren't making money

[time builder]

SWA is much smarter than all the others. Read the book "Nuts" about herb Kelleher and the creation of SWA.
Here are the key points to his success:
One type of plane (Boeing 737) Pilots are qualified to fly all planes in the company.
Mechanics only have to be concerned with working on one kind of plane, only need to stock parts on this one type of plane.
SWA locked in fuel prices years ago.
and many many many more smart moves by Herb and the SWA team.

You're right on, that fuel hedging deal in particular was well timed. That and they established a reputation for being a low fare carrier earlier on. Heck, some people don't even look at the "Legacy carriers." They just figure SWA or JetBlue fares are automatically going to be lower.

 

[IFollowRoads]

SWA is much smarter than all the others. Read the book "Nuts" about herb Kelleher and the creation of SWA.
Here are the key points to his success:
One type of plane (Boeing 737) Pilots are qualified to fly all planes in the company.
Mechanics only have to be concerned with working on one kind of plane, only need to stock parts on this one type of plane.
SWA locked in fuel prices years ago.
and many many many more smart moves by Herb and the SWA team.

401(k) retirement, no pension program dragging the company down the tubes. That is the No.1 reason Southwest will survive.

 

[Groundpounder]

It would be alot easier for the airlines to make money if it wasn't for the GD unions

 

[Midnight Flyer]

How, exactly, are the LCC's "greedy"?

It only makes sense that a company would want to reduce it's operating costs to make more of a profit, I understand that.
However, the LCC's take it to a whole new level and IMHO, cheapen the industry in their attempts to offer a flight across the country for only $139.
I personally view the LCC's as the "Wal-Marts" of the sky. Take a look around the next time you're in Wal-Mart. Notice everything from the quality of the product to the quality of the employee, to the type of people who generally shop there. In Wal-Mart's attempts to undercut all of the other stores, they pay their employees crap, their quality of product is lower, and their service is lacking.

Deregulation is one of the biggest mistakes that was ever made that affected this industry. Sure, it created competition, but as a result, the discount airlines started emerging and everything started getting cheaper as a result. Look at the quality of passenger back in the 60's and 70's. People dressed up to fly and the whole event was viewed as an adventure. Nowadays the Greyhound crowd is commonplace on an airliner.

 

[big_al]

401(k) retirement, no pension program dragging the company down the tubes. That is the No.1 reason Southwest will survive.

the WSJ did an interesting investigative story on company pensions, and found out the majority of big companies' pensions costs are actually to cover the executive plans. Nobody says much about it, though

 

[stearnst]

It only makes sense that a company would want to reduce it's operating costs to make more of a profit, I understand that.
However, the LCC's take it to a whole new level and IMHO, cheapen the industry in their attempts to offer a flight across the country for only $139.
I personally view the LCC's as the "Wal-Marts" of the sky. Take a look around the next time you're in Wal-Mart. Notice everything from the quality of the product to the quality of the employee, to the type of people who generally shop there. In Wal-Mart's attempts to undercut all of the other stores, they pay their employees crap, their quality of product is lower, and their service is lacking.

Now you're making it sound like there's something wrong with Wal-Mart! :erm: