This is the most correct statement in this entire thread. Being successful is about finding opportunity and exploiting it. Kirby isn't a risk taker. Quite the opposite. He's risk averse. Every decision he makes is calculated. The difference between him and other airline CEOs is Kirby isn't afraid to lose a few hands, because he knows in the long run he will win more than he loses.

Here's an analogy. If I gave you a 6 sided dice and told you that if you rolled a 1 or 2 you would have to give me $1M but if you rolled a 3, 4, 5 or 6 I'd give you $1M. You only get one roll. Would you roll it? What if It was the same $1M each roll but you get to roll it 10 times? Now would you do it? Odds are you'd win either way. But many people are more afraid to lose the $1M than to win it, even though it makes a lot of sense to roll it.

Kirby has been watching and understanding the industry for years. In numerous interviews he's used the phrase "I've never understood why..." and then explained what other airlines have done that didn't make sense to him. He's not a risk taker. He's seeing areas where the odds are in his favor and he's going after those. He knows we won't win them all, but so far, we have won many more than we have lost and he's going to continue doing this.

I don't think Kirby has any particular disdain for labor groups, despite what is starting to emerge on this thread. He's in this to maximize opportunity for himself and his family just like all of us are. Fortunately he's taken a growth path that's greatly affected us in a positive way. More faster upgrades, more flying opportunities and more profit sharing. I don't believe for one second we would be on the other end of this if the economic landscape changed in a substantial way.

To Joepilot's original statement, Kirby isn't a "visionary". He's rolling the dice over and over because he's seeing an advantage in our network that other airlines don't have and he's exploiting it.