People like johnso29 always want to blame SWA or JB for their company's problems. JB always was paying for thier airplanes, they just made firm order's for 100 and options for another 100 A320's and for that reason they got a great deal.....do you buy in Bulk at Cosco...same concept. SWA will always Hedge Fuel.
The difference with SWA and JB is they are well run, well managed companies that have a strong brand that customer's like. It is called good business. Now in the OLD Day's the Legacy carriers would overlap a start up carriers Route structure and loose millions on that route just to put them out of business. Or even better they would just BUY them and put all the employees on the Street. Unfortunately the Legacy's don't have that Pricing power anymore, so everybody wants to blame SWA and JB for their company's poorly run business.
They are lean because of productivity, efficiency and aircraft utilization rates. SWA pilot's are some of the best paid in the industry, and JB pay is getting close to industry average and industry leading in some categories.
They treat and COMMUNICATE with their employees well, and for that their employees offer a great customer service product. IT IS CALLED BUSINESS. Foreign Ownership is about a GLOBAL ECONOMY and a GLOBAL AIRLINE INDUSTRY....get with the program on market economics. The federal government is not going to keep saving poorly run company's that can not look to the future and make a business plan work.
My .02 cents.