Originally Posted by
av8or
For your consideration:
”Watterson said yesterday all airplanes would be back on property by October/November. 657 fleet count by summer, the rest back by October/November (30 planes). We want to be Aloha in Hawaii without saying it.
I’ve heard from other sources massive hiring going into 2022 along with a lot of upgrades”
And
“Yeah... super informative. He touched on a lot of growth opportunities. If he visits a base I would totally recommend going to a meeting. He’ll sit there and answer all the stupid questions pilots like me love to ask. It does give me a little confidence in what’s going on in the crystal palace. He seemed most exited about Hawaii (kicked Alaska out of Oakland and Sacramento to Hawaii), growth to other airports in the same market (Intercontinental and O’Hare (couldn’t have gotten into O’Hare without covid)) and how they got in to Long Beach via old sound regulations and got Jet Blue out of there”
Discuss.
Much like the hurt feelings over the shark sculpture, this thread will certainly be quickly derailed.
If Alaska hasn't figured it out yet (they have), Southwest is it's single biggest competitor for the west coast market. They want to be THE west coast airline and are throwing capacity in that direction. They have opened up a growing crew base where Alaska is shrinking and Alaska has responded to that competition by darkening the skies with SkyWest 175s.
It should come as no surprise to anyone at either airline that management at either airline is concerned about what their competitors are up to and how to counter their chess moves.
What I don't understand is why pilots care and take it so personally.