For your consideration:

”Watterson said yesterday all airplanes would be back on property by October/November. 657 fleet count by summer, the rest back by October/November (30 planes). We want to be Aloha in Hawaii without saying it.
I’ve heard from other sources massive hiring going into 2022 along with a lot of upgrades”

And

“Yeah... super informative. He touched on a lot of growth opportunities. If he visits a base I would totally recommend going to a meeting. He’ll sit there and answer all the stupid questions pilots like me love to ask. It does give me a little confidence in what’s going on in the crystal palace. He seemed most exited about Hawaii (kicked Alaska out of Oakland and Sacramento to Hawaii), growth to other airports in the same market (Intercontinental and O’Hare (couldn’t have gotten into O’Hare without covid)) and how they got in to Long Beach via old sound regulations and got Jet Blue out of there”

Discuss.

Much like the hurt feelings over the shark sculpture, this thread will certainly be quickly derailed.

If Alaska hasn't figured it out yet (they have), Southwest is it's single biggest competitor for the west coast market. They want to be THE west coast airline and are throwing capacity in that direction. They have opened up a growing crew base where Alaska is shrinking and Alaska has responded to that competition by darkening the skies with SkyWest 175s.

It should come as no surprise to anyone at either airline that management at either airline is concerned about what their competitors are up to and how to counter their chess moves.

What I don't understand is why pilots care and take it so personally.

i don’t take it personally. If you don’t understand why I care, then you’re either a SWA pilot, or, not in the game at all. It’s business. Our business. And it affects how we pay our bills. If you are an employee of a business and don’t care about how a competitor could negatively impact your livelihood and thus, pay attention.... then you’re a moron.

Its embarrassing and demoralizing to realize we work for people who have no plan outside of Seattle. Alaska is like Wile E. Coyote. They think they're so clever but everyone is laughing at them. Our transcon market share has been decimated and now Southwest is wiping the floor with us in Hawaii but, lookout we've added 2 flights to Belize. I'll be off reserve any year now.

I'm sure a certain someone will chime in soon enough and tell us all about the amazing future Alaska has mapped out but they just can't tell us the details.

Since I was quoted:
I’m not an anti Alaska Guy. I have a lot of friends and Squadron Mates that are employed by them and I enjoy Alaska’s product. I was just relaying management sentiments. Alaska tried to move into California and Swa took it personally....... Hawaii is just an extension of that. No ill will toward Alaska pilots or flight crew. We just operate aircraft. 🤷‍♂️

No offense taken my man. I posted less out of a concern for SWA aggression and more out of concern for Alaska lack of it.

Itll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Alaska is going to be just fine. The executive management over at LUV is not laughing at us, they honestly respect the hell out of us. Alaska is not going away, we will keep doing what we do and growing about 4.5% a year, some airframes, some just seat capacity. Not super sexy, but really good margins, rock solid job security, well positioned for significant contract gains. We are going to be just fine, competition makes us better. For once in my career I think the union really has this one, let go stay unified... Summer is here enjoy!

lol… and here it is… ‘back2future’ you called it, like clockwork from the usual suspects… this board is entertaining as heck🤣

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rodgers

America’s ambassador of good cheer did more than pass out smiles in his life. He offered practical business advice: complacency is death. Even if you’re doing the right thing, if you’re not moving forward, constantly pushing yourself to reach beyond your comfort zone, then you’re in trouble. The competition will overtake you.

Indeed. Nor will it just be SWA. Frontier didn’t order 18 321XLRs to fly DEN to LAX.