Originally Posted by
1Seat 1Engine
This is always one of my favorite quotes, and it usually underlines the ignorance of whoever says it.
Ryan, if you know what fuel futures are going to do, you shouldn't be a pilot for the airlines, you should be a finanacial planner for the airlines.
All airlines will continue to hedge. Some more effectively than others. You have no idea how effective any of the airlines hedges will be at guessing the future cost of fuel, so how can you say that anyone's hedges will "run out".
SWA did a better job of hedging in the past, and I'm willing to guess they'll do a better job of hedging in the future.
SWA's current fuel hedges will expire. They will then purchase more, but they won't have the large advantage that they do now. SWA was able to purchase fuel hedges years ago when the Legacies could or did not, because of its superior financial condition. I'm not saying that SWA will be in trouble when the current batch of hedges runs out, but SWA will lose some competitive advantage in the near future as its current hedges expire. I'm sure SWA will be fine, since it is so well managed.