shoelu

Southwest Airlines Co. LUV, -2.57% said it will keep its middle seats open through Nov. 30, as it bolsters its commitment to its "Southwest Promise" which includes enhanced cleaning and physical-distancing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the "Promise," airline said it is requiring face masks to be worn at all times for customers over the age of two and employees. The company will provide face masks to customers that don't have them. In addition, customers are required to acknowledge that they are aware of the face covering policy, and confirm that they don't have symptoms of COVID-19 and have not been exposed to COVID-19 in the 14 days before traveling. Southwest said it is also boarding in smaller group of 10 to allow for social distancing, and is providing hand sanitizers at check-in kiosks, ticket counters and gates. Southwest also provided an update to financial guidance, in which it raised its September load factor outlook and lowered its average daily cash burn estimate for the third-quarter. The stock rose 0.1% in premarket trading. It has advanced 11.1% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS, -3.10% has slipped 0.4% and the S&P 500 SPX, -1.44% has gained 8.9%.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/so...sks-2020-09-16

Jk3728

👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 Southwest has been great to me commuting and the pilots and crew are amazing but I don’t understand how blocking middle seats off is supposed to help profits. Right now all we have are leisure travelers and they will fly for the cheapest price. There more concerned about ticket price then so-called social distancing on an airplane full of people

e6bpilot

Yeah, those idiot managers have no idea how to run an airline. They should be charging for bags too! Morons!


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Smooth at FL450

Are you familiar with the "Southwest Promise"?

sMFer

Because when flights are showing consistently full, we pull another plane out of storage and add segments. Keeps us flying and keeps those passengers concerned coming back.

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727C47

At my company SWA , and Delta are the preferred airlines to fly on as they are the only airlines doing it right during the pandemic, the others are varying degrees of a hot mess. Keep up the great work.

Lewbronski

I’m more inclined to trust SWA management’s take on the issue of whether or not to block middle seats than I am to trust my own take or some random line pilot’s take. Also, pilots tend to be pretty conservative politically which also means - according to the principle of you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with - that most pilots insulate themselves inside a conservative bubble.

Jk3728

To be honest I can’t really argue with that. Good point of view.


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ROFF

I think it’s more for public perception than anything scientific. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt tho. But then again it all seems for not when we get to the gate and everyone stands up so they can get off sooner.

The article about airline employees having a low infection rate was interesting considering the dynamics of the whole social distancing thing.

nuball5

Its not a long term solution, but right now blocking the middle seat is important to many customers. They’re even willing to pay a premium to have more room. Southwest or the other airline blocking the middle seat have this data. Right now keeping the middle seat open isn’t that costly with traffic down 70% anyway, especially post summer travel.