Has Southwest ever been a part of that 'great cycle in the sky'?

It seems most people who comment negatively about the SWAPA decision can't understand how SWA could pass up an opportunity to get bigger.

SWA has spent decades bucking conventional industry logic and not sacrificing everything for the sake of getting a little bigger. It's a formula that has worked pretty well for them up to this point and I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Fly safe!

 

How many 777s or 747s would Compass bring to the party? How many 737s did F9 bring? What is a Compass pilot's career expectation at a stand alone airline? What was F9s? Apples and oranges comparison.

 

Yes they have. There were many years where "legacy" airlines paid better, had better benefits etc... SWA had low pay and awful work rules compared to a major airline. Deregulation has now run it's course and is fully mature. The industry has now realized all those things that the framers of deregulation built. SWA hasn't set the bar... the bar has come down to SWA. And now SWA is on top... sort of. They have a great business model for the current conditions, but there are obvious chinks in the armor. (Don't believe it if you don't want to, but why else would they go into LGA if there weren't more places to expand? It doesn't fit their model...) Time will tell where this is gonna play out, but I personally wouldn't trade places with the most senior SWA captain, because that type of flying is not for me anymore... but that's just me. Fire away.

 

Highest paid on their equipment type for what, ... the past 6 years or so. How did they affect the "bar" for the previous 2-3 decades? And fwiw, that top spot has more to do with bankruptcy contracts lowering other's pay than SW surpassing them.

I'm not a SWA hater now they are finally getting compensated better, but you truly seem to have a set of blinders bolted firmly to the side of your mellon, and either choose to ignore or are ignorant of history.

 

TSquare,

That's my point...SWA hasn't experienced the up and down's of the other airlines in the past 40 years.

If you have been at SWA for the last 20 years I think your experience is very different than being at Delta for the last 20.

 

"Merger" ...Key word...

 

If you want to say that "the bar" is the retirement age for pilots, I'll give that to ya.

But, when did SWA get these highest pay and benefits in the industry? Seriously, I'm asking when the previous contract that has the current payrates was signed ? Also, what was their pay before that? Remember, you said "over and over."

 

Funny how all the "I'm not hatin', but..." posts end.

I'm not saying Delta screwed the pooch on caving on scope for pay and allowing for RJ mania in our business, but .....

 

Recently (as of 9/11 anyway) they gave have been on an opposite wave as in a manner of speaking. They have been doing well, and hiring when it was poop storm everywhere else.

But you can't deny that their cycle is getting more in sync with the legacies, especially at the end of last year and this year. when their financial results were not that great.

True, but as has been posted, they are starting to stray from that original model that has worked so well as of late. Use the standard example of LGA, as well as their past presence in PHL. Two airports that on most days don't mesh well with the way SW does business. It could be said that the model that has worked for them is starting to reach it's peak.

 

What's key about it?