Black Coffee

A lot of people around here need to hear the truth. Singer has control of this company, it's only a matter of time before we hear what direction he takes it.

rickair7777

Well, No. Pax can't go on Amazon and ship themselves to Vegas for the weekend.

SWA has a lot of iron, gates, and slots and accounts for a very significant % of domestic capacity. All of that isn't going anywhere.

Might be some tweaks to the model, but there's still enough demand and "capacity discipline" (Thanks Boeing!) in the industry that there's plenty of money to be made, in one niche or another.

9thAmendment

I think it’s Sears in the sense that SWA sat on its hands while the world completely changed around them and they became obsolete.

Yes SWA has a ton of market share but they don’t make any money from said market share. That’s because they offer an absolutely terrible product within an outdated business model. There is no magic wand waving management can do at this point that will solve years of inaction.

hoover

do they still have to reboot the system every night or has that been fixed?

e6bpilot

Good question.
I got a late reserve reassignment to Deadhead to TUS one night a long time ago circa 2016 or so. Flight ran late and was going to depart after 3am. Customer service could not for the life of them get a boarding pass to print. It just would not accept me at all. They tried everything, calling scheduling and the NOC, finally the ops agent was standing there getting ready to close the door. Captain sauntered up and told me to hop on in, they would figure it out later. Good times.

e6bpilot

Do you work here? Serious question. I am not throwing shade.
You are correct, our management has been given a 20 yard field goal attempt every year and somehow managed to kick it short every time. Boeing hasn't helped either, although they aren't to blame for most of it. All that being said, there are a lot of things going on under the hood that are going to bear fruit later on and this company has a lot going for it. I think the Sears comparison is pretty inaccurate.
I am hopeful that this will be the wake up call that is needed to get some of the dead weight out of here and see some changes take place at a faster pace than they have been. Other than that, I am not very optimistic about a hedge fund taking effective control of an airline. It hasn't ended well in the past.
Yes, the product needs some work and the business model needs a tune up, but SWA is the 800 pound gorilla of domestic network airlines. To deny that is foolish.

Proximity

There is not going to be some major shift in the way we move people by planes that put Sears out of business, taxi companies, etc.

Sure the product is a little stale, but all that is fixable. Wasn't so long ago that other airlines imitated Southwest (MetroJet, Song, Ted), now it's time for Southwest to steal a little from others.

The largest domestic carrier isn't going anywhere soon, they just stopped expanding until Boeing can get the 737 situation figured out.

trip

Those we're 15-21 years ago! We're getting old, sigh.

Black Coffee

Delta 17.7% American 17.3% Southwest 17.3% United 16.0%

This is from the DOT domestic market share, not sure where all the 800 pound gorilla talk is coming from. Ive even seen stats where the DOT has us 3rd behind American. United is killing us in Denver and gaining on the domestic side. United is #1 across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is adding several A320's a month, increasing their domestic market share. Im not sure our Rock the Rockies campain is going to have any effect on our passengers. Six years ago we were the leaders. Other arilines have adapted in that six years, while we have been sitting around sending each other kick tails.

e6bpilot

A good portion of that domestic feed for the legacy carriers is done by other airlines. We fly our own. Our network is by far the best in the country with the exception of the Northeast where we have always had a gaping hole and probably always will.

I am not a SWA apologist, the product and the way it is sold and executed needs change, but the Sears comparison is ridiculous. We have a monster network and the bones and soul of a great airline. We have just suffered from a complete lack of vision for the last 15 years. Gary Kelly got us here by investing in Wall Street instead of the airline and its people. Time for him to go spend time with his family along with the rest of his rubber stamp Gary appointed BOD.

While I am not excited about the way it happened, I am actually optimistic that Elliott will mean change is finally here.