I figured I might chime in before this thread is relagated to the afterlife of threads. First of all Gman, I am still waiting for Neeleman to come dump my lavs since he has free time now. Second point is that Gman made a decision to go to JBLU and the only way he can defend his career decision is to put everyone else down (mostly SWA) and pump up JBLU. It has been increasingly difficult to pump up a baloon which has been slowly descending lately. I hope that all the employees (including a friend of mine who is a chief pilot) at JBLU can patch the holes and begin ascending again. Neeleman was too much in the balast area (mostly hot air) and things should get better.
SWA has faced many difficult situations in the past and I will say that the current obstacles will have to be overcome. The idea that the sky if falling is overkill and those who are chicken littles like Gman are no more knowledgeable than palm readers. They hope for the failure of someone else to justify their own existence.
Examples abound during the existence of SWA of other airlines trying to squash our business model. Most beat their chest predicting the likely demise of SWA, because they had suddenly found the holy grail. History is littered with those such as Shuttle by United, Delta Express, Metrojet, Ted (although not dead yet), Western Pacific, Song, as well as others. Everyone is a formidable opponent, but Cost is the true threat and we are certainly trying to keep that area low and maintain our salary levels.
The most formidable threat of late has been the bankruptcy system which has robbed from the efficient and given to the inefficient. Costs at airlines that have gone through bankruptcy have been lowered on the backs of employees and have created an environment where efficient airlines (SWA) are put at a competitive disadvantage. The failure of one or more airlines would improve things drastically for the majority of employee groups with the unfortunate ending (or restarting of) those at inefficient airlines.
Bottom line is that Bankruptcy has stolen income from one group and given it to another. Sounds like welfare to me! Cheers!
