Originally Posted by NERD

T doesn't need my help, but I can't let this slide. Historically southwest was a major drag on industry contracts. From their inception they paid less, worked more, had no retirement, but had fun doing it. Sorta like my commuter days(much more fun then the grown up airlines). Lots of the early employees gambled on a start up and got lucky with stock. Even as recent as the late 90s(really pre 9/11) they were somewhere between a good regional and a major. It wasn't until the prison rape of ch11 that they exceeded our contracts(it was not any heavy lifting by swapa, it was the swipe of a pen by a judge). LUV has always had a cost advantage, whether it be labor costs(inception to legacy ch11), then fuel hedges, etc and I would never count them out. Now they don't and things appear to be turning more legacy like and it will be interesting. Will they allow a b or c scale small jet operation on property or will they allow that flying to be outsourced to a partner? They need to find a way to grow their revenues for Wall street. From talking to relatives and friends there the LUV is not lost yet, but is getting stale.