Actually, just because a legacy pilot moves up from a 737 to a 757 does not mean they make more money.

Case in point United 747 Captain =$178 Southwest 737 Captain= $190

Any questions?

JAM- One question. How much longer do you think that will last?

Quoting Gary Kelly WRT our upcoming section 6 negotiations...." our pilots recent industry leading pay has been factored in and is not in jeopardy".

We took a 5 year pay freeze, and lagged behind the industry average for years being the "bane of the industry". Now we are finally on top for our type, busting our collective asses, and yet there are those out there who can't wait to see us stumble. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

4th level--

You're right on the money. I'm not sure what everyone's beef is. They put us down during the pay freeze too! LOL. Like I've said before, it's very weird. Oh well.....

S. B.

SkyDolt, er, sorry, Skybolt, you wonder how I can look negatively upon the best paid...WELL THEY ARE NOW! Ahem, excuse me for yelling.

Yeah, they are the highest paid but look how far the legacys have fallen. SW is the successful upstart that drove salaries down. OK OK I know, it's not just pay. The equation is complex. The legacy carriers can not cut their fixed costs overnight (or even in years). SW has an advantage in being a growing company. You want to lower your seat costs? Grow. More seats = lower costs per seat. You want to increase your costs per seat? Shrink. Shrinking to profitability has rarely worked and is very difficult. Labor is the easiest to cut, painful yes but easy.

SW will eventually be the legacy carrier and will have to compete with some snot nose upstart like Virgin. They will have to cut costs. Guess who will be the first to take the cuts? It may already be happening.

Just so I don't criticize without offering a solution. Re-regulation is some form is the answer. An airline should not be able to price their product below costs. (with lots of exceptions bla bla bla....)

I have to laugh at these people who seem to think that once the fuel hedging runs out southwest will fold. Why would a company fold when they have some of the lowest ticket prices and can still post a profit. Fuel goes up, ticket prices will go up a little to offset the cost and they will still be the leader. The good news is that most on here believe southwest is the trend-setter and when they raise prices so will everyone else and then who is going to win????? The bad news everybody will feel like idiots because they did not see the simplicity of the issue.

A little? The largest expense at an airline tripples, and prices will only go up a little??? That would definately cause SW to fold.

This issue is extremely simple. An airlines largest expense tripples, they will need to almost double revenue. That's just not gonna happen!

Wasn't indepednce air and delta song low cost swa modeled carriers too? Its sure worked out for them didn't it?

You guys with your CFI ratings crack me up! Maybe they'll eventually add reading a financial statement onto the CFI syllabus. You boys are right on top of things. SWA made a profit without the hedging gains so far this year. Don't know what the 4Q results are yet, so can't make a statement for the year. If you need financial information, don't rely the info here. If I need information on a magneto check, I'll come back and ask the brain trust that resides on this board.

Here's another factoid - fuel is not the largest expense at SWA, labor is. Yet, SWA made hundreds of millions with hedging gains, and would have been profitable paying market rates for fuel. PS, you can't even spell triple. Maybe you should try to get a degree to go along with that CFI rating.