Originally Posted by
Metal121
Scoop--where then, according to your logic, would you suggest someone gets hired today that will take over SWA in 10 or 20 years?
Jet Blue? Frontier? Delta? Air Tran?
The point is there is no one left!!!!
The barriers to entry for any airline "start-up" or currently operating carrier is much too high to compete with the SWA machine. The plight of every airline out there right now proves that.
SWA has made a profit for 37 years straight. I dont think any airline has a record that can top that. And SWA has faced a lot of diversity over the years...the Wright Amendment being one big one.
So unless SWA management decides to get systematically and completely stupid in the next few years or the US and world economy COMPLETELY implodes, SWA will continue to find a way to survive. Its in their DNA.
Metal,
Great question - I have no idea. That is the whole point - the way the seniority system is set up with pilots seniority "tied" to a specific airline we are all just rolling the dice. SW is a great airline, always has been but history teaches us that the bigger they get the harder that will be to maintain. I would be willing to bet that 20 years from now there will be 2010 hire pilots who are better off somewhere else than if they were hired at Southwest in 2010. This is not a put down on Southwest which is as you say an extremely well run company but just the nature of change and inertia. The bigger you get the less nimble you become and consequently a lot harder to adopt. Then again if I were interviewing today and offered a job at Southwest I wouldn't hesitate for a second - take the job with a big smile but just don't expect the next 20 years to mirror the last 20. It only takes 150 orders to double your fleet from 150 to 300. It takes 400 aircraft to double your fleet from 400 to 800 which would only match the advancement opportunites of a 150 aircraft previously. And it gets harder and harder to find suitable markets to expand into.
Scoop