Originally Posted by REF 5

Their is a short window here but ALK and SWA are both in a transition. Following the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, which utilizes expensive widebody aircraft and produces low yields, Alaska Air Group reported HA incurred losses exceeding half a million dollars a day. Which brought down earnings this past quarter as well as forecasting a loss in the first quarter. Very rare for ALK. It will be short lived as ALK pivots and redeploys those airplanes to potential better yielding markets as well as streamlining the fleet(rid of 717's and A321's). Mergers are very expensive, time consuming and require much effort by mangement to put together. So SWA definitely sees some openings. It's not a coincidence that SWA is opening a 12,000 square foot, two floor lounge in HNL. Remember, airlines are required to report 10% of their fares to the DOT. Modeling does the rest. So SWA knows what is bleeding and what is profitable. All airlines do this. SWA has a 33% market share vs ALK's 12%(3rd) in SAN. Either way, SWA opening a base or not in SAN doesn't really change those dynamics. Operationally though, single runway operation? Don't know but SWA decision's these days doesn't surprise me.