Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
Who could not see this coming.
- AirTran has vastly lower yields and lower costs than SWA. If SWA's cost structure is placed over the routes the 717 operates, the result is about a 15 to 25% operating loss.
- The 717 is too range limited to be the core of an O&D airline.
- The 717 only really makes sense at the fringes of the market as a feeder or supplemental to an operation being driven by low costs elsewhere in the operation.
I'd think a good fit for the 717 is US Air, but their labor situation renders them paralytic.
The other angle might be that management could be turning up the heat in response to the lack of an SLI agreement.