Southwest does a lot of things. The hedges help. Treating their people like, well, people helps.

One thing that everybody always forgets about is the hub and spoke. They don't do it. They roll everything. Don't need nearly as many gates to do the same number of flights out of a given city. As a result, they don't need the staff, they don't need the GSE. They also don't have those employees sitting for 90 minutes between pushes.

As long as they have cash, they'll have hedges. The cash allows them to purchase fuel at a volume discount.

Even if they cost a little more, I think people will still choose WN over legacies when given the chance. Happy employees make happy customers. Not to mention that without the fees people don't feel nickle and dimed. Skybus was cheap, but by the time they hit you with all the fees for bags, food and drink you were probably paying the same as anywhere else. Look how well that went.