Can we get a comment from Pineapple guy?
 

October 18, 2011, 11:58 AM ET

Airlines (Even AMR!) Rising; Data Shows Passenger Revenue Growing

By Avi Salzman

Airline stocks rose in morning trading after the Air Transport Association said last night that capacity continued to tighten in the industry in September and airlines are getting more revenue from each passenger per available seat mile.

“The US domestic market (excluding express results) continues to impress, with September traffic up by 0.4% on 2.1% less capacity, for a load factor of 83.6%. Passenger unit revenue growth outpaced the total system and was up by 14.2%,” writes Helane Becker, an analyst at Dahlman Rose.

Becker expects Southwest (LUV) to benefit from the strong domestic environment, because it is the largest mainline carrier in the U.S. Southwest, however, said that it will sell some discounted tickets in November and December, which is a somewhat troubling sign.

Airlines also appear to be performing well in Latin America as passenger unit revenue rose 14.2%.

“Copa Holdings (CPA) will benefit the most from strength in the Latin American region followed by AMR (AMR), United Continental (UAL), and Delta Air Lines (DAL),” Becker writes.




Will the above help us achieve Southwest+ ??? What does the accountant Pineapple guy say? He said I need to take accounting 101 to understand why we shouldn't get a big raise, and it had to do with RASM.

will repost................

Several things.

1) I no longer want SWA pay. I think Sailing is right to say SWA should not be our benchmark. If this new deal passes with SWA/FL and 717s are held at FL pay rates then I don't want that contract at all. FedEx+ for me.

2) What will help us achieve a great contract? The willingness to walk off the job. Plain and simple.

It's not about how the company is doing- we're not the sales force. We negotiate for what we're worth and despite what that flaming idiot UAL Captain wrote in ALPA magazine a month or so back said, we are worth the money.

If we do as any other invaluable manager of DAL is allowed to do and leave if the pay isn't what it should be then than those who agreed with the flaming idiotic editorial will find out what we're worth. Because unlike every important manager at this airline, if we walk off the planes stop flying.

3) I think given the pay rates of today and the direction of this company nobody has any business lecturing the pilot group on expectations. If the pilot group wants $300,000 Captains on average then that's what the pilot group wants and it is ALPA's job to go get it, or they may be fired and a new group of negotiators/representatives/lawyers hired, and so be it if that's the pilots will.

But it is also the pilot group's responsibility to wisely determine if what ALPA gets is acceptable.

4) I think we have an A+ management team. People who sell them short are pretty clueless if you ask me. Anyone who is as contribution margin focused as this group is deserves a lot of credit for looking beyond the typical accountants gross margin calculation which is devoid of an understanding of what makes a company strong in this industry. An accountant would say de-bank (sp?) to save money, someone who knows what they're doing says bank the flights to make more profit then you'd bank de-banked.

That's my rant.

Couldn't have said it better. My sentiments EXACTLY.

Heard a rumor today.... ASA moving most of 50 pax RJ fleet to Memphis and more mainline coming to Atlanta to compete with Luv. ASA displacement bid to be posted next week for ATL

I still don't know to what extent ASA/SkyWest "owns" (or controls, etc) any amount of gates in ATL.

If this rumor is true, it appears that SkyWest has very little influence over the gates they operate out of on behalf of Delta as temporary subcontractors. Either that or we paid them off or bought them back?

More than today, I'm concerned this could be an issue in several years when we cut them loose (lose, lewsuh?) and force them to go IndyAir. Although ATL is tight to get into WRT gates, its really not that phenominal of an O&D market. Its a good one to be sure, but there are tons of good ones. ATL is the biggest airport in the solar system only because Delta chose to make it a hub. On its own there are many, many bigger and better O&D markets so to think that ATL access will propell SKYW into prominence and/or SWA will rule the world because of it is pretty silly.

So when SKYW's contracts are up, can we cut them loose (lucid?) or do they have gate leverage over us courtesy of the no talent hack executive talent-less bonus mongers of the previous regimes?

I am confused?? :confused: For years management has been telling us the only way we could compete was via RJs. Even ALPA insisted RJs were good for Delta Pilots. You know, customers "Luv" the frequency. What management genius is getting the six-figure bonus for coming up with the "novel" idea of competing via a mainline product.

Scoop

Wouldn't doubt it. Memphis is RJ central. 75% or more??

Sounds great, however, the APA has been willing to walk off the job for the last 5 years, why haven't they? Why haven't they achieved a contract in those 5 years? What would you recommend we do differently so that we don't fall into the same trap and are stuck still negotiating this Section 6 contract in 2018 without a release for self help from the NMB?

Serious questions, I'd like to hear your ideas on how we expeditiously move through mediation.

We (ASA crew) have heard the same rumor a lot. The main issue is our contract with Delta. We're garunteed 80% of DCI flying out of Atl and the 50 seaters make up more than 50% of our Atl DCI operation.