Originally Posted by rickair7777

SWA has almost tapped out their market niche...city pairs which can support several 737's each day. In order to continue growth they will have to leave their niche...personally I applaud their tremendous discipline in staying in their proven, profitable niche for so long.

To continue significant growth, they need to expand their paradigm with new airplanes (either larger or smaller, but smaller makes more sense) and/or new operational philosophies. There are several ways they could do this:

- Buy RJ's and fly them themselves. The upside is it would make pilots happy...the downsides are numerous: new training, new Mx, new ground handling, new computer systems, etc, etc. They could probably fit RJ's into their existing operational model, ie operate them just like 73's but in smaller markets.

- Code share with an existing airline(s): Actually they are already doing this with ATA to cover markets which the 73 and their OPSPEC is not suitable for (international and over-water). International ops DO NOT fit into SWA's operational model because a "quick turn" with a trip through customs can take 2 hours. The idea of using an RJ code share to get into Mexico is not that far fetched...especially since mexico is an appealing destination for SWA's bread-and-butter customer: low-end leisure travellers.

- Sub-contract a regional provider. The downside to this is that they will have to sign a long-term contract, and it will probably be fee-for-departure (ie all the risk is on SWA for making the business model work). The upside is that they could achieve very tight control over operational details (paint schemes, crew uniform, pax handling, etc) to preserve a seamless SWA experience for the pax.

I agree that the SWAPA pilots have a HUGE amount of control over which way this goes. But it's possible that they might allow some outsourced flying in order to enhance the core business on which they all depend. Replacing 73's with RJ's probably won't be allowed, but they might decide that a limited outsourced RJ operation poses less threat to their job security than a risky re-engineering of the SWA core business model to include in-house RJ's. The good news here is that the SWA pilots WILL have a significant say in the matter...unlike most of the rest of us.