Airline management study is essentially required with my involvement at our union. It is voluntary, believe it is beneficial for our pilot group since we can counter management opinions/proposals with more information, etc.

Google "SWA profit reports" and enjoy the read. It is diverse, your opinion is correct and supported by some articles. If you stay micro and not macro, certainly you will feel vindicated, but it doesn't mean the opinion is correct <g> over the history of the company. It is a narrow view about the ability of SWA to make a profit. Know you are smart so will let you read how SWA management works diligently to lower cost all the time (even when profitable) unlike most carriers managements who are not interested in the long haul profitability since they know they will not be at said airline <ng>.
Hedges are usefull, work both ways (witness UAL hedge play). Airlines are inherently massive energy users, makes good business sense in the business plan to reduce the energy costs. Historically, SWA does hedging and a thousand of other management programs exceedingly well with their pilots, F/A's, mechanics, travel agents, etc.