Latest & Greatest with SWA??
 

In honor of the loooong thread about Delta, I figured one should be started about SWA...

There's a SWA thread about interviews with some talk of slowing or ceasing their hiring.

For our SWA bubbas: What do you hear from the PD? My type is scheduled for later this month. Am I too late for this round of interviews/hiring? I hope not!

Thanks
C9

USN--

The answer to your question is no one really knows anymore. At the end of 2007 our CEO said we'd barely grow in 2008 and we've hired almost 500 pilots from what I hear. Now he's saying no growth for 2009. He's talking about having 6 codeshare agreements by the end '09. Our August year over year load factor is down almost 5% and we're cutting a bunch of flights from the schedule in January. Couple this with the often discussed diminishing fuel hedging position and it doesn't look too great for '09 hiring.

On the bright side, our CEO is on record in speeches and print as saying he's not looking for any pay/benefit concessions from the pilot group. He's on a mission to "return Southwest Airlines to profitibility." Not a bad mission but I suspect growth will suffer for a while. Then again I'm just a pilot so take my opinion with a grain or two of salt.

S.B.

Son of a $%#$. Timing is everything in this industry isn't it...

Sr Barco speaks truth. No one really knows what the heck is going on. The hiring firehose goes from OFF to ON without warning around here. All projections about future growth are only good for the next couple months, then all bets are off.

It has seemed to me that SWA has led the industry slightly in forecasting overall traffic. Our management was one of the first to cut back last year. That cutback was short-lived but now we're cutting back again. In my opinion they see bad economic indications over the next quarter or two and they have poor advance bookings (just my guess, take it for what it's worth, I only fly airplanes and spread rumors for a living).

Timing is 90% - Luck makes up the other 50%.

A true Yogiism

:) Scoop

Here's my best "semi-educated" guess from an outsider that recently spoke with an Asst. Chief Pilot type from SWA, this is only MY guess...

SWA has 2 classes in Sept. of 24 or so each...both classes are filled with people that interviewed in June/July. No more new hire classes for 2008, maybe one small class of recurrent for some military leave types...maybe a small upgrade class too.

Pool is very close to empty. Some that interviewed in Aug. (they did about 125 interviews in Aug. don't know how many, if any in Sept.) will probably be hired into a pool and be first out when they hire again. They will probably interview and hire into the pool in Sept. and/or Oct. Figure 60 from Aug. get in, say 50 in Sept. and maybe 40 in Oct. gives them a pool of 150 for when they open up training again. When will that be? My guess is Jan. or Feb. assuming oil stays where it is and/or goes down a bit and the economy doesn't worsen too much.

Any insiders feel free to chime in and correct what is only MY best guess...

Oct Interview
 

I did my 737 type in the end of July, had my application with Southwest on 1 August and go the call for an interview on Sep 5. My interview is early October and my availability isn't until the middle of March 09. I think there is still time...

Letsfly, congrats on getting the call. Good luck on the interview!

hjs,

Just a little off on your guess.

Interviews didn't begin until July. The two classes this month are filled with guys from the pool before this round of interviews along with a few (4 or 5) guys from July 8th (first date for interviews this summer).

Pool filled back up a little with the Aug board and will gain more with this months board. Sounds like they will need to have another since interviews are still going on into October.

Those picked up on the last board are being told maybe late this year, early next (nobody knows).

Hope it clears it up for some.

I'm still a newbie, but heres my 2 cents....

'Nobody knows', how true. I have been here since May and I already know that what you hear today may not be true tomorrow. The flying we're loosing should pick back up in March. I also don't believe what the company says about no growth. While I believe we are finished for 2008, I think 2009 will start with a bang!