It might. But other airlines have the talent in flight ops to mitigate the risk going forward. We don’t and that’s why we don’t touch that sort of flying. Their comfort level barely extends beyond Texas. It’s why it took them over 2 years to be comfortable w/ Hawaii when they already had the op specs. We just aren’t at the level of the big 3, B6 or NK in this regard,

I disagree.
I think 95 percent of the decisions made with regard to opening and closing markets is economics. Will the market work and is the juice worth the squeeze? For decades, the formula of putting a big network and lots of frequency in an underserved or expensive market has paid dividends. As flying has gotten less expensive and more democratized, that isn't working as well any more. The last big domestic battle was over dominating the west coast. SWA won. There just isn't anything left, the "battle for the Rockies" notwithstanding (aka the United/SWA wiener measuring contest).
I think in the future, SWA is going to be forced to get more creative in harvesting ripe markets. The low hanging fruit is pretty much gone and the Northeast simply will not work without a NYC hub which is not going to happen. I don't know what the answer is, but if you draw a circle with a Max-7 range from any of our mega stations, it touches a lot of airports. SWA is going to have to start working in the margins to grow instead of trying to make these moonshot leaps like they have in the past. Otherwise, it's going to be stagnate and shrink.
Size is an advantage all its own. We will see if our seemingly completely inept management team can make something work. I applaud them pulling out or back from the markets they did recently. It takes courage to admit when you are wrong. Hopefully they can shift strategies and find something that works here soon.

I see whet you’re saying but their actions don’t back that up. You can draw a circle w/ a M8 and go a lot more places then they currently do. They refuse to accept foreign currency because they would be expected to use it. One of my CA said flt ops told his upgrade class they were scared of the terrain in S.A. they don’t trust themselves to do it and therefore don’t trust us. The battle of the Rockies is a joke.. going to need a much better product to compete there. Handing out kick tails won’t cut it.

i hope they can figure it out. But GK/BJ aren’t big thinking enough to pull it off.

Not in the left seat. Cheap yes in SWA part. Carl did a good job.

To say they "can't figure it out" is not true. They have moved slowly into things through a flight ops perspective. To be honest, that's a good thing. International, ETOPS, etc. all require time and training. I doubt very much they are "scared" of South America. This place has issues that need to be addressed over the next twenty four months before they start any real growth. They basically closed enough cities and frequencies to open 28 equivalent aircraft plus whatever they get from Boeing this year. Making sure the network is set and more importantly profitable. South America is not some crown jewel. Just ask American. Yields were down over 11% last quarter. Big D's latin American yields were also down 12% last quarter. United's was down 10%. Way too much capacity. SWA has the Amadeus reservation system and has the abilty to do POS. MEX never worked not because of POS but because of it's crappy slots, open seating, and no real investment in the community. By the way, Airtran never made money with it either. Same with assign seating. That same system also can do onboard cabin products. They have chosen not to since they have gotten it some ten years ago.

Bottom line is, limited airplanes and a stale product. Airplanes will come eventually. The product as we know will change at the very least assign seating. The rest I think they are still trying to figure out. I think GK saw the writing on the wall and didn't want to deal with it. Now BJ has a **it sandwich. Until the product changes and has the abilty to match peoples wants, operating income will be small at best. Heavy checks, new contracts, etc will rise on the cost side and the stale product will bring in record revenue(which is a bull**it statistic) and yields(true measurement of health) will be largely flat or down. After the summer, it's going to be interesting.

Yea I'm totally gonna bypass upgrade forever so I can get paid mad 757 FO coin. Where's that rolleyes emoji? FFS what a bunch of whingers.

I am not talking about SA and I doubt they are either. That would be a huge move. Think small. Think in the margins. That's what airline managers need to do right now.
The economy is still banging away, but for how long? Domestic yields have historically been much less volatile during the down times but also less rewarding during the good times.
As mentioned above, SWAs fleet needs to grow and their product needs to change. They have been in rebuilding mode for the last few years and now Boeing and their poor decisions have thrown a wrench in the works.
Now they are facing an activist investor. It should be an interesting year. We will see where this thing goes, but a nasty proxy fight and an activist having seats on the board probably won't end well for labor. My guess is they smelled blood in the water and are looking to pump the price and make a profit, but maybe they are serious?

FIFY (windows & period key)

There has been some speculation that a WN/B6 merger could make sense. Now that the new administration is coming in, who knows what is possible. Has there been any chatter lately?

There has been no speculation about that. B6 adds nothing SWA wants. And many things SWA considers anathema.