Codfather

Maybe not a bad situation to be in but I'm new to the airlines after flying for the Navy the last 10 years and I have been hired by SWA starting in August. The kicker is I just received an intreview invitation from DAL and I am a little perplexed. Love both companies and will be shortly living in SLC (DAL domicile) which makes DAL very attractive but love the stability of SWA. Obviously not hired by DAL yet, but to interview or not? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Freightbird

Ad up the number of profitable quarters in the past 1, 5, 10, years of each airline.

Decide which one you want your house payment to depend on!

BTW- We have 2 flights a day SLC-OAK you may jumpseat on.

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Metal121

Easy....SWA

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Conan...what is good in life?

HalinTexas

i hate people like you

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Booze make everyone beautiful!

LukinUp

Ditto!

gradywhite

maybe DAL woul be a better fit for you

armagostj

Why not just interview and get offered the job first. Are options a bad thing?

Hunt599

BOY thats a tough situation..........I really feel for you...

NGINEWHOISWHAT

Sir, it's NOT an easy decision. Southwest is a strong company and Delta is a strong company and growing. Delta people endured painful cuts as Southwest set the pace for the industry. Now that the other airlines have trimmed the fat and reached that pace, Southwest is not the darling of Wall Street anymore.

Southwest has a lot of work to do, but will never be able to take advantage of the legacy carriers as it has in the past. Southwest has fallen victom to the low fare war it started.

I will NEVER triumph in the down fall of another, but the field is a bit more level now. Southwest has lost its edge and is no longer a LCC but a Legacy carrier with the same bloated salaries and over expansion the legacy carriers suffered from.

Minus AMR and NWA, the legacies jettisoned their pensions and other salaries to compete in the market place. The cuts were deep and to the bone.

Delta is taking delivery of 42 new aircraft between now and 2010. We are gaining 777's, 757's, 737's, and are in the market for a 100 seat aircraft. Southwest, as well as many legacy carriers are reducing capacity. I can tell you that every flight I have flown this week has been full. Most every flight is full and revenue is good.

You guys know like I know this crap is cyclical. Southwest is a great company, but I would not be surprised if they had to cut pay rates or implement other measures. They are already toying with the idea of international flights (through ATA) and assigned seating. Maybe they should stop advertising $49 dollar seats.

While Southwest is an EXCELLENT company to work for, come on over to Huff-Daland Duster. You will not be sorry.

Tom

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*** Southwest has struggled this year with demand that has slowed along with the U.S. economy and consumer sensitivity to even moderate ticket price increases. The carrier's jets flew about 70 percent full through May, the lowest percentage among the 10 largest U.S. airlines.


*** ``Southwest is morphing more and more into a regular airline,'' Susan Donofrio, a Cathay Financial analyst in New York, said in a note to investors. Southwest is no longer ``the less-mature, higher-growth airline that it was in the past.''



Southwest Air to Slow Growth, Move to Boost Revenue (Update4)


By Mary Schlangenstein

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Southwest Airlines Co., the largest low-fare carrier, said it will expand less than planned, drop unprofitable routes and pursue more business travelers to help blunt rising fuel costs and sluggish demand.

Southwest will add 19 Boeing Co. 737s in 2008 instead of 34, Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said today in New York. The Dallas-based airline will slow capacity growth in the fourth quarter and all of 2008 to 6 percent, from 8 percent, and is still studying its 2009 and 2010 plans, he said.

Trimming growth and winning more corporate travel accounts will help fill planes and maximize revenue from each flight. Southwest slowed its expansion only once before in 35 years of flying, when it deferred delivery of 19 jets after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

``They are making some very necessary and smart changes that could prove very fruitful,'' Jim Corridore, a Standard & Poor's analyst in New York, said in an interview. ``It should be relatively easier for them to increase their penetration among business travelers.''

Southwest's cost to fly each airplane seat a mile, a measure of efficiency, has risen 20 percent in the last four years, threatening the airline's ability to grow profits while charging its signature low fares. The changes announced today will ``help restore profit growth,'' Kelly said.

``Our profits are lagging and we intend to adjust and to fix that,'' he said. ``Our model isn't broken, it's just a little bent.''

Shares of Southwest rose 19 cents to $14.83 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They declined 4.4 percent this year before today.

Business Travelers

Southwest plans changes to its boarding and seating practices, frequent-flyer reward program and fare system. Those shifts, along with a new advertising campaign, will be aimed at wooing business travelers, who make up 40 percent of Southwest's passengers. The airline didn't give details today, saying the changes will be announced in the fourth quarter.

In total, Southwest expects to add $1 billion in new annual revenue by 2010, Kelly said. Sales totaled $9.1 billion in 2006.

The revenue target would amount to about $10 a passenger, based on projections that the airline will carry 100 million travelers by 2010, said consultant Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, New York.

`Doable'

``That's not a ton of money,'' Mann said. ``That's a good goal; not terribly aggressive. I'd say that's doable.''

Southwest is still studying other operational and revenue changes, including ways to shorten airport wait times by modifying baggage-handling and check-in procedures, and whether to sell items onboard or offer travel products on its Web site. The review of its boarding process began last year. Southwest is the only major carrier that doesn't assign seats.

``I would have liked them to be a little more forthcoming on what they are going to do with boarding,'' S&P's Corridore said. ``It is the thing customers complain about most -- the cattle car boarding.''

During the fourth quarter, Southwest will eliminate 39 existing round-trip flights, including some longer nonstop routes such as Los Angeles to Baltimore and Chicago to Oakland, California. Only one route is being discontinued -- between El Paso and Midland, Texas. The airline will use the capacity to add 46 new round-trip flights in areas where demand is growing.

Slowing Demand

Southwest has struggled this year with demand that has slowed along with the U.S. economy and consumer sensitivity to even moderate ticket price increases. The carrier's jets flew about 70 percent full through May, the lowest percentage among the 10 largest U.S. airlines.

While demand has improved recently, pricing has not, Kelly said today. ``June traffic is strong; July and August bookings look strong,'' he said. Yields, or average fare per mile, are down in June and ``may continue to be down.''

Southwest won't meet its goal in 2006 of increasing annual earnings per share at least 15 percent, Kelly said.

``Southwest is morphing more and more into a regular airline,'' Susan Donofrio, a Cathay Financial analyst in New York, said in a note to investors. Southwest is no longer ``the less-mature, higher-growth airline that it was in the past.''

Donofrio, who rates the shares as ``underperform,'' cut her 12-month price target for the stock by $1 to $12.

Southwest hasn't decided how to trim the number of aircraft being added to its fleet next year, Kelly said. The airline may return some planes at the end of their leases, defer deliveries from Boeing or sell some of the jets it owns, Kelly said.

`Older Aircraft'

``It makes more sense to us to sell older aircraft and return aircraft under lease rather than defer deliveries,'' said Douglas Runte, an analyst with RBS Greenwich Capital Markets in Greenwich, Connecticut. Older planes burn more fuel and have higher maintenance costs. Southwest's older 737s have an average age of 16 years, Runte said.

Fuel and labor are airlines' biggest expenses. A gallon of jet fuel for immediate delivery in New York Harbor has surged 18 percent this year. Jet fuel has averaged $1.93 a gallon so far this year, 27 percent more than the same period in 2005.

HuronIP

Did they already give you a class date? I interviewed in March with they type and I'm available in August and I haven't been called yet.