In the era of the p2p, the nonstop and the O&D traffic, the single fleet type was supreme. It worked and worked well. You had the luxury of offering the nonstops with high productivity with the airplanes. Wins for everyone. The company didn't need as many assets to run the operation and the high productivity made our lines of flying great because of the productivity. We have averaged more days's off then our peers. The block per duty day was the highest. The airplanes kept moving. With little connectivity, the business traveler made the network mint money(especially CA). Shell size of the aircraft began to increase. With the advent of the 800 coming to SWA the operating margins really increased because people paid for the nonstop as well lowered CASM. Then the pademic hit. Here we are. You can blame Boeing, you blame management but in the end we are here. So it's time rethink SWA. Product alone will not change a damn thing. Which leads to this.

If SWA truly is going to a hub and spoke model, then SWA will need more than just intentionally banking flights with 143/175 seat airplanes. A hub and spoke system at SWA WILL fail if that is the only assets they use. It will bleed money. Object of the game is to feed the hub with as many spokes as possible. That includes small, med and large cities. Not all cities can have 143/175 seat aiplanes. Their is a reason why the network carriers have mulitple fleet types. All those airplanes serve different cities of size profitably. The network carriers have been doing this a long time and have recently(last decade or so) have really right sized the hubs to where it's consistently showing good returns. When consolidation came around many uprofitable hubs lost their status. PIT,CVG,MEM,STL to name a few. They made the profitable hubs that much stronger. Adding more spokes(aka ATL). As of this writng, I have no idea what BJ will announce tommorrow. If their is not a plan to add some kind of feed to SWA, then this will fail big if they do a true hub and spoke. Which leads me to this.

SWAPA. We have the most scope restricted CBA in the industry. Nothing gets past SWAPA when it comes to airplanes, unless we ok it. Didn't really need to worry about it. P2p doesn't lend itself to it but hub and spoke will. IF we go to a true hub and spoke, that will have to be addressed.

EM is here because of the cash and credit that SWA holds. SWA is the only investment grade airline. If you notice EM didn't go after Hawaiian or American. They went after SWA. The balance sheet is the only thing left. It's important distinction from the rest. BJ and AW are way over their heads in this. Time to bring in someone who take this airline to the next level. Not just tweak it. Their are not many good options. We'll find out more tommorrow.