Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
PX,
I agree that the environment in Hawaii has changed, but your obsession with the way that a public corporation went in to upset the monopoly of anther public corporation has just as much to do with HAL management and their poor business practices as it does SWAs. It isn't the pilots who made these choices and, ultimately, the marketplace will decide what the final outcome is.
HAL enjoyed an interisland monopoly free of competition for way too long. Their business plan was also trashed by Covid and economic forces post Covid. HAL management failed their employees just like SWA management has failed theirs, leading to both the Alaska merger and the Elliott activist battle. Who do you think is going to suffer? Hint... It's always labor.
You clearly have very strong feelings about SWAs entry in to the Hawaii market, but don't make it personal.
1. SWA was never after HA. GK stated that many times. The reason SWA went to Hawaii was because of ALK. When ALK bought VA they made their intentions to make ALK the number one airline in CA. Since the number one destination that SWA did not serve out of CA was Hawaii, they felt they had to. I don't know what the numbers are today but in 2019, CA made up almost 40% of SWA's revenue. Some of you forget that this is a competitive business. Nothing stays stagnant forever. Interisland flying makes up a small percentage of ASM's. Minuscule amount compared to overall size of SWA's network. AW has said, it's really just to stage the airplanes and crews. It should make money. It's not. Maybe they trim the interisland, maybe not. If you think Hawaii is the reason SWA is falling apart I have some swamp land to sell you. The company has hit a brick wall with costs and revenue. Both sides of the ledger need to be fixed. Legacy cost's with LCC revenue. Not a pretty recipe.
2. If you watch AW's update, CA is brought up a lot. As a matter of fact, the whole west coast is talked about. Connectivity somewhat exists on the east coast(and DEN) but the west coast is almost exclusively p2p. Very little or no connection opportunities. The whole network on the west coast need's to change. We'll see what that looks like on Thursday. By the way, this is not new. During Covid, SWA became a hub and spoke so they didn't have close stations. In 2021 and 2022(minus the melt down) their margins were pretty good. Their operating income was over 2 billion. When they put the network back to more of a p2p system, that's when yields started to deteriorate plus the appetite for international travel boomed. When AW states that RASM and yields are better than 2019, he forgets one thing(or intentionally leaves out). Inflation. So you take that out of the mix, it's not good.
3. I wish the HA/ALK guys all the best. Mergers are never fun. Especially SLI. Hopefully you guys will take advantage of the synergies as well as opportunities to expand your reach. You will become the fifth largest airline in the US. Hopefully your management's team has better luck of running an airline than SWA does at the moment.