The second checked bag is free, too...

Why is SWA offering a few seats at $29? Because if they charged $39 for them the seats wouldn't sell.

Supply and demand determines the fare, not costs. If costs are too high for the currently market price then you lose money until you can cut supply enough to have a profitable selling price. The fuel price increases have far outpaced the airline's ability to cut supply.

 

I would have to agree with ftr on this. You cant call yourself a free market and demand this and that of a company like swa to charge more when it doesnt fit their business model. It is unfortunate that people lose jobs but that happens in every industry that does not make money. Why all of a sudden is the airline business any different? If your company lays off people then I would say management has not prepared itself or it's workforce for hard times such as high fuel costs. A free market will correct itself by getting rid of the wasteful companies and force others to become more efficient. Face it people, we have too many seats flying with too few customers. Stop pointing fingers at companies like SWA. If you were a customer and saw a 29 dollar fare on SWA you would buy it unless you were a complete moron. Consumers dont want to pay extra, so the sooner we get that through our thick skulls the sooner we can quit whining about it.

 

I think it says a lot about SWA that they keep fares lower than they could charge because they don't gouge consumers. There's no bag fees, no soda fees, no change fees, etc. etc. It's a very flexible company to buy your tickets on. Oh and they're fun to ride on.

That being said, they've said even they haven't been buying fuel hedges lately. If oil continues to stay where it is, even THEY will face a revenue issue in the next 36 months or so.

 

[quote=mesasurvivor;

Southwest has excellent marketing & has had yearly profits every year since the Ford administration , has never had a furlough, pays great wages and benefits & most importantly...has never gone bankrupt. Southwest is the most financially succesful airline in the history of the industry....I think they probably know what marketing works and what doesn't.[/quote]

You could have easily replaced "Southwest" with "Delta" 20 years ago and most of what you said would still be true. Guess what - things change. Southwest has always been a very well run and disciplined company - will this continue for the next 10, 20, or 30 years - I doubt it. If the economy stays in the tank and oil stays expensive they will start to feel the pain. Face it 10 years from now people will refer to SW as a "legacy" low cost carrier. As a matter of fact I think they are already starting to adopt to the weak US economy and are starting to look at their options. For now they are the hands down hegemon of the U.S. domestic industry, but no one stays on top forever and they wont either.
Looking back throughout the history of the airline industry it seems pilots always want to get hired by whatever airline is on top at that moment (understandable after all) and then they mentally extrapolate that snapshot over their projected 25 or 30 year career. Well guess what - by the time an airline is the most sought after employment prospect, it is too late. The guys who got hired at SW 30, 20, and 10 years agos scored big time. The guys who were hired a few years ago will do well. Anyone who is getting hired today - who knows?

Scoop

 

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

 

All good points....

 

WOW !39 bucks from BHM to TPA ?Gee Wally how many of those seats are there?
Amazing ! But its factored into the a/c operating cost so they can afford to GIVE away a few seats at that rate .
Interesting that a radio personality could be so tiiiight with their dough





Let the good times roll .