Friday August 21, 2009
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Southwest Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly said the LCC is "seriously considering" operating international flights as soon as 2011 and also remains interested in acquiring troubled assets from rival carriers following its failed bid to purchase Frontier Airlines.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kelly said there are plenty of markets to which SWA still can expand (it currently serves 67). "If you're just talking about the domestic US, I think there are a dozen [potential expansion cities]," he said. "If you add international markets, there are dozens. . .The 737 can do Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean. . .We're seriously considering that. . .2011 [would be] the earliest that we'd be flying international metal."
SWA previously announced its intention to give customers access to Canada and Mexico via codesharing; a partnership with WestJet was supposed to begin this year but has been delayed, likely until late 2010 (ATWOnline, May 27).
Regarding Frontier, Kelly likened SWA's losing out to Republic Airways Holdings (ATWOnline, Aug. 14) to the world's top golfer recently losing the PGA Championship. "Even Tiger Woods doesn't win every tournament," he told the newspaper. "We'll be back in the game for the next tournament. It's a matter of being opportunistic. Any time you've got a competitor failing in bankruptcy, that presents an opportunity."
He said Southwest could grow 10% via an acquisition, as would have been the case with Frontier, but much larger growth would be "a huge risk" not worth taking. He added that acquiring regional airlines is "not our vision going forward."




by Aaron Karp



ATW Daily News

 

Thank goodness!!

 

Let me save the haters some keystrokes:

Can you believe the hubris of Gary and those SWA guys, they think they're the Tiger Woods of the airline industry! I can't wait until SWA starts furloughing like the rest of the industry, then they won't be so cocky...hahahaha!

...or something to that effect is how this thread will go, right?

 

The Frontier debacle aside. I think you have a great pilot group. Your well compensated, enjoy your jobs, and are some of the most accommodating folks I've come across when it comes to the jumpseat.

Your management has done an amazing job of moving the company forward & your pilots have done an amazing job of supporting it.

It cracks me up how many pilots want to play management (make management decisions) and how many managers want to be pilots. I think the futures of our companies are best left to us all doing what we were hired for and that applies to any company, not just Southwest.

Take Care!

 

I totally agree; what is it about pilots that makes us think we know more than we actually do about everything? And, I'm not even on SWA property yet, and who knows if I ever will be. I'm just sitting back on the sidelines chuckling at all the spear throwing on these boards and hoping for the best. As Phillip Hoffman's chararcter said at the end of Charlie Wilson's War, "...we'll see!"

 

And before someone else says it yes there are times management would be wise to listen to their pilot groups, but things like determining where to fly to next, etc,etc is not one of them.

If that was the case we'd all have focus cities/pilot bases in our hometowns!

It's all about ME, ME, ME!!!

 

This is not a surprise. The need to grow and this is the next logical step.

 

But don't statements like this make you think that SWA really has no more room for growth in the US, which is why they are seriously considering Mexico, Canada, & the Carribean?

 

C'mon Johnso29, read the article.

 

I personally think SWA is a well run, well oiled machine. But one thing I DON'T want to see is the "peanut fares" they'll PROBABLY employ to foreign destinations. Keeping airfares LOW certainly isn't helping ANYONE, including SWA..............