hoover

last summer we were crazy late and the system was **** down and the ops agent couldnt do a manual weight and balance. , nor could the sup or anyone else in the airport. So we sat there with all the manuals open trying to teach the ops agent and the sup how to do it.
also yrs and yrs ago I was trying to jump on a ferry flight. No one knew how to list me etc. Cpt said hop on, let's go. Got home 6 hrs early.

REF 5

800 pound gorilla talk has really nothing to do with the network. It has to do with the balance sheet of SWA. SWA still by a wide margin has net cash position. They are the only airline that has investment grade rating by all three agencies. None of the other three legacies have that. All the holders of debt can call their loan's tomorrow and only SWA can pay it off and still have about 3 billion in cash left over. It's important that it stays that way. That balance sheet gives them the abilty to do stupid things(like the melt down) and not financially destroy the enterprise. It's one of the main reasons's why Elliott and at one point Buffet invested in SWA. In a cash intensive business like the airlines, the balance sheet gives companies like SWA a advantage in good and bad times. Having said that, operating margins are terrible due to low yields on the revenue side and massive cost increases on the cost side. Many more airplanes can only fix the cost side. The revenue side, I guess we'll see the plan in the fall.

When it comes to the network, of the top 50 US markets, SWA is #1 in half of them. US airfares have been going down now for over a year. CPI has seen decreases of 14 straight months of US airfares. Legacies have the advantage because of their big international footprint. Almost all the gains of the unit revenue side have been because of markets like Europe. Which SWA ain't doin. Although I predict code sharing is and will be a important part of their revenue strategery come the fall.

PineappleXpres

Balance sheets can be destroyed. It’s happened time and time again. Back up plan is too big to fail, so the 7 figure management probably can get paid to do nothing.

REF 5

Of course it can. Look at Delta just before 9/11. Not as good as SWA at that time but probably the best of the legacies(as far as balance sheet goes). Five years later they were bankrupt. I don't think their is a "backup plan" as you call it. I think Elliott, as well the other major institutional investors will have a lot influence on that. They would lose their whole investment. The stock would be worthless. Normally in CH11, equity is the last in line to get their investment back.

Mangement has a small window to fix this without doing real financial damage. If they start mortgaging unencumbered assets, that would be bad. If Capex spending is to the point where they have to fund debt to make it happen, watch out.

5tools

Elliot is a snake in the grass.

$2 Billion Activist Investor's Disastrous Plan Threatens Southwest Airlines Future - View from the Wing

Liberty

So sad and very true. Embarrassing!

Traffic Alert

So, I went ahead and compared 10 city pairs on Google Flights. It’s pretty clear why they never wanted fares to be shown outside of their website. The only way they were ever cheaper than anyone is if i was going to pay for 1 bag and even then, they weren’t in 7/10 cases. Most people have a credit card for their preferred airline that negates this anyways. Elliott is a bit of a wild card, but I do believe they will shakeup the C suite and get things moving on the right direction. We need to start charging for things, even bags, or at least making people get our card to get them free. The only customers who will be upset are the ones who have been exploiting the system.

cessnapilot

agree

Another take on it here

Cyio

That was a good read, thanks for sharing.

Traffic Alert

I agree with some of his points. However, we are here because of the ineptitude and complacency of our C suite. They elected to just coast on past success while everyone else climbed the mountain. They left the door open for this and we should all be angry at them for it. Gary and Bob need to go play w/ their grandkids and let someone else divert SWA into what its next chapter is. They don’t deserve that chance anymore. Nobody knows what will happen next and we have to just control what we can. There is probably a ton of investor politics being played behind the scenes. Things will change but I think we will still be SWA at the core. They even referenced some of Herbs best quotes in their summary. The big 3 added Basic Economy to compete w/ us and now it’s time to add Premium Seats to return the favor, along with adding galley carts w/ edible food.