Virgin Awarded Love Field Gates

[scoreboardII]

I will still be shocked if a Dallas City Council will turn down the very business that employes more Dallas residents, and does more for the local economy than Southwest Airlines.

I won't, not one bit.

 

[Tomct]

What's really funny about this whole deal is that GK is on record saying that they don't NEED more than 16 gates. And now that little ole Virgin wants to come into his "Monopoly" on the down town market...he is all up in arms. Now THAT is a Joke!

I believe he KNOWS that once his frequent flyers get a taste of Virgin, there will be no going back unless they want to fly to something closer. UA learned the hard way of trying to hurt us in EWR, didn't work out so well for them. We are making money hand over fist out of there, so its all good.

Will we take all SWA passengers.....NO! Will we get some of their high mile/business travelers to those specific cities.....YES! And that ladies and gentleman is one of the very reasons GK is worried and throwing a fit about Virgin coming to LUV.

Either way, the city will do/say what they want, but in the end, if VX doesn't get the gates, the city will be sued by both the Gov and VX. Not good either way....waste of time and money and in the end, VX will STILL get the gates.

 

[redflyer65]

Tomct,

I think your reading a little more into it than what's really there. Gary Kelly 'worried and throwing a fit'? I don't think so. It's just business.

It's his job to do the best he can for the company. Just like your CEO making the trip to Dallas. That's their jobs. I'd be pissed if they didn't care. As an example, review what happened with the Houston City Council decision to build an international terminal. GK went down in person and gave a presentation. Meanwhile the CEO of United (Smisek) didn't even bother to go. I guess he couldn't waste his time.

I think part of what you say may be right. Both companies will be fine. The big unknown for me is how much effort SW puts into running you guys out of town if you get the award. And that too is business.

Review what happened years ago when JetBlue decided to bust into the Atlanta market. Delta came after them like rabid dogs. Undercut every city pair and threw thousands of FF miles at people to fly Delta. It worked. JB was gone in less than 6 months I believe.

If GK decides not to go down that road, then things might be more harmonious. Going to be interesting to watch.

 

[Tomct]

Redflyer,

I agree. It is just business and I believe that there is enough for both companies to make a profit and keep revenues up. I believe that SWA has bigger fish to fry rather than VX. You guys have a lot of great things coming up for your company....the Itnl flying out of HOU is one I can think of right off the top of my head. You guys are always very gracious to those of us that commute and we greatly appreciate it. Of course we are always happy to return the favor.

All in all, I would like to just get it over with and continue on with business. This industry has had enough of pilots attacking pilots etc. Hope all goes well for you guys and our carrier as well.

Fly Safe!

 

[Flopgut]

Something wrong with Houston too.
And when you have a bureaucratic, legislative mess at your two largest markets, that indicates there's at least an identity crisis in Texas.

Texans like to slam California - where I grew up and still do a lot of business.
And you flop will not answer the question I've continually posed to you.

Why can sfo and lax exist without the bureaucratic restrictions to its neighbors airports, in liberal California while conservative Texas cannot?

You guys don't seem to understand where market forces are beneficial

Deleted. I'm going into a bunch of days off. I'm done for now

 

[waveflyer]

Bc you still don't have an answer now do you?

 

[Flopgut]

The way this is playing out, the less I say the better Wave.

 

[waveflyer]

Why do you think any of us have any bearing on it at all?
Besides, I'm asking you about LA and SF

 

[scoreboardII]

Redflyer,

I agree. It is just business and I believe that there is enough for both companies to make a profit and keep revenues up. I believe that SWA has bigger fish to fry rather than VX. You guys have a lot of great things coming up for your company....the Itnl flying out of HOU is one I can think of right off the top of my head. You guys are always very gracious to those of us that commute and we greatly appreciate it. Of course we are always happy to return the favor.

All in all, I would like to just get it over with and continue on with business. This industry has had enough of pilots attacking pilots etc. Hope all goes well for you guys and our carrier as well.

Fly Safe!

So why not just grow at DFW?

Why get ONLY two gates at LUV? Wouldn't it make more sense to grow at the place you could get ten gates?

It's ONLY two more gates for SWA, who cannot by law grow outside the gates already at LUV. Period.

More here than we know brother

As said, the heartburn we have is, we are landlocked at LUV. If we dare move to DFW, we LOSE gates at LUV. How FAIR is that?

Interesting times.

 

[canyonblue]

What's really funny about this whole deal is that GK is on record saying that they don't NEED more than 16 gates. And now that little ole Virgin wants to come into his "Monopoly" on the down town market...he is all up in arms. Now THAT is a Joke!

I believe he KNOWS that once his frequent flyers get a taste of Virgin, there will be no going back unless they want to fly to something closer. UA learned the hard way of trying to hurt us in EWR, didn't work out so well for them. We are making money hand over fist out of there, so its all good.

Will we take all SWA passengers.....NO! Will we get some of their high mile/business travelers to those specific cities.....YES! And that ladies and gentleman is one of the very reasons GK is worried and throwing a fit about Virgin coming to LUV.

Either way, the city will do/say what they want, but in the end, if VX doesn't get the gates, the city will be sued by both the Gov and VX. Not good either way....waste of time and money and in the end, VX will STILL get the gates.

This is not about starting up business in a new city, you already fly out of Dallas. This is about getting as far away from American as you can and they don't mind driving you over to DAL in a U-Haul. Branson is counting on Southwest to be passive, he's counting wrong. I'm counting on my airline to do everything possible to remain a profitable airline by doing everything they can to beat the competition. I know you seem to think we will lose passengers to you, and good luck with that. Just don't be so shocked when we hope that you fail miserably, we are the ones who built Love to what it is today, against unbelievable odds. The fact is, Southwest getting the gates is best for the city of Dallas in the long run and there is plenty of proof to back up that claim.