Originally Posted by
ewrbasedpilot
SWA has excellent hedging strategies which they can afford and the others can't due to their tremendous overhead expenses. Therefore they can keep the ticket prices "artificially" low. If they were paying the same for their oil, their would be NO WAY they could fly their planes with oil at what it is. The other airlines are constantly compared to SWA even though the business models are COMPLETELY different. They figure if SWA can make money, everyone else should. They don't understand that flying a B777 for 16 hours across the pond is NOT the same as hopping on a B737 from AMA to IAH. They think the costs are the same for a landing slot in FRA for the B777 as they are for a B737 landing in ABQ. They think we can turn a B777 around in 15 minutes just like SWA does. So when they DO fly on someone else, they are totally mislead about the dynamics and complexity of what we do. SWA is great at what they do, but it is so totally different than what the majors do. Yes, we both carry passengers, but you don't have first class, transfer luggage, fly internationally, fly into EWR, ORD, JFK, YYZ, etc. You don't serve meals, and fly transcon redeyes from LAX to EWR. You fly one type of plane and we don't. Their are lots of similarities, but many MAJOR differences. Unfortunately though, these passengers think SWA is the best thing since sliced bread, but can't fathom that we operate differently. So, they are either extremely satisified with what they experience or totally put off. SWA didn't have any planes stranded outside the USA on 9-11. It cost the airlines with int'l flights BILLIONS in lost revenue. No one ever said anything about that, because the news media was totally absorbed by the fact that SWA made a profit and gave out the so-called "bailout" money as profit sharing. No mention of thousands of pax being stranded in BDA with the airlines paying out $10's of thousands in hotel bills. SWA didn't have that problem. As I said before, SWA is a well managed airline, but they are familiar with their territory, and like anything else, once you're out of your comfort zone, things change rapidly.
man you gotta let that 9-11 hotel business go. that was almost 7 years ago.
if your 16 hour/international flying isn't generating enough revenue to sustain it then you should stop doing it. I remember hearing your management say they wouldn't make money on specific routes even if they were full. time to either pull out or raise fares. that's just plain bad management.
I heard your #2 guy talk about how different you were than all of the LCC's and that you offer a different product and blah blah blah. his last sentence was "but we won't get beat on prices" if you are so different then you can charge more for that product. ie those meals, blankets and international flights. just face facts that southwest is kicking everyones ars right now and your hotel cost were and are not your problem.