Sounds like a deal was made and a messy proxy battle will be avoided.

I am not 100 percent sure why it was so important to the execs to hang on to Jordan, but I see why all the same. So far, he has been pretty milquetoast. The only upside that I see to him is that he grew up at SWA and is "one of us" and not some outsider appointed by a finance bro playing fantasy league airline boss. It will be interesting going forward to see how he changes with regard to no longer being under the thumb of Gary Kelly and his self appointed board of minions. So while I was originally hoping for an ouster followed by either a veteran outside CEO or internal hire, I will chalk this up as a win for the company and employees. They aren't wrong about things being in flux right now and Jordan being at the helm. A messy proxy battle followed by a CEO replacement is probably not in the best interests of anybody, at least right now.

I am glad to see that the self appointed board of rubber stampers is being sent packing, at least partially. Sounds like board governance is also being changed to get away from the strong chairman being the king with a court of jesters that shows up, agrees with everything, and collects a paycheck. Also good. This is probably the final blow to the Herb founder led airline governance model. Gary was his number two and pretty much had the same unlimited and unchecked power that Herb did when it came to leading the company. That's good and bad, as was seen during his tenure. He led the airline to do some incredible things and through a period of intense growth, but he also failed to do some very basic things that a CEO should do. The Christmas meltdown was the culmination of that and will forever be his legacy, despite all that he accomplished.

In any case, this story is just beginning. My personal opinion is that the outcome that has been proposed is overall a positive for the future of the airline and needed to happen. I still dont think that Jordan is long for this world. You can't survive a public shaming like he has and just go on like nothing happened. I think he will see this transition through and probably retire. We will also see over the next few months who else was part of the deal. Tammy Romo was another Gary acolyte. Does she get to stay? Will we keep our entire stable of VPs with very specific titles?

As far as the pilots go, I am glad we settled our contract when we did. It gives us a few years to prepare for what's next. We just need to protect the agreement we have made at all costs and give no quarter when they come asking.