Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
I know this is a popular opinion among many of our fellow SWA pilots turned cockpit CEOs who think that we are going to destroy everyone who flies to Hawaii. I do not believe it is true for many of my own cockpit CEO reasons.
I liken it to the mafia, or maybe the SWA/Delta detente in ATL/LAX. When everyone is making money, why screw it up? The things that make Hawaiian great cannot be done by Southwest in its current form (see our sad attempt at big boy international in Mexico City). They also go so far against the way SWA operates that there is zero chance that our current crop of managers would ever buy off on merging the two companies.
Bingo. Unfortunately this is totally true. The mindset in Dallas is that we’re going to continue to grow with the B737 and ONLY the B737 and not expand past near international destinations. The execs at the top of the pyramid have this mindset. The only one that’s chomping at the bit to get bigger airplanes and expand to further destinations is EVP CRO Andrew Watterson (former route planning guy for Hawaiian coincidentally). He’s been vocal about that in the past and has also stated that the higher ups have no interest in it, but that “They won’t be around forever”.