It’s better to be lucky than good! Hell, for most pilots hired in the last couple of years it was luck of timing, not skills.

 

Is Southwest selling planes now? Will there be furloughs or are you guys understaffed anyway?

 

We are selling them to lessors and leasing them back to ourselves. We are getting the cash out of them to have on hand (personally I don't know why but thats what I've heard).

 

You claim you can do greed, anti-labor, and ruthlessness, yet you complained about all that with current leadership. I think it could be much worse if this groups gets it's people in the C suite. Much more greed, much more anti-labor. I think we are about to jump from the frying pan directly into the fire and we are all going to get burned, especially the junior folks.

 

I would expect a CEO to be pro greed and anti labor, but I would rather know what I am up against rather than rah rah culture BS. It certainly won't stop me or anyone associated with labor complaining about it.
I don't think Elliott has anyone's best interests at heart other than their own, but I know that going in. Jordan stood up at investor day and said that he is selling airplanes and order book slots to raise cash to pay investors. He is doing that to fend off the activist investors and keep his job. Ummmm....thats corporate raider stuff, man! Don't send me emails telling me you Luv me and then sell out your own company to keep your job.
One common theme with Elliott that I agree with is that the people that got us into this situation probably aren't the best people to get us out.
The only thing I have heard any pilot say in Jordan's defense is "he is probably better than the alternative". I know 2 billion reasons that he isnt the answer. He is an accidental CEO who is way out of his depth. Time to get someone who can steer this ship into the next port.

 

Did he actually say they're selling off slots for new MAX 7's? Or was it just that they're selling off some of their older 800's to do the leasback before they retire them?

If they were adjusting the order book, that would mean a lot different story than just sale leasebacks.

 

Does it make sense to sell older aircraft that are paid off, or nearly paid off to just lease them back? I know the MAX’s aren’t paid off. But I can’t think of a scenario where selling older planes to lease them back makes sense.

 

whatever they filed with the SEC is what they are doing...

 

You must have read a different script on what Jordan said than I did. Every airline out there has slowed it's growth that just a fact. Every airline has claimed there is too much capacity so to recover the value of some of SWA 800's which cost more to fly now because load factors are lower, the company plans on selling them to monetize the value in those airframes. Not sure that's same thing you're claiming. But each to their own.

 

Thats not the whole truth. SWA is on the books to receive almost 700 new airplanes between now and 2031. With the current fleet of over 200 Max's already, your talking close 900 plus airline fleet(when you retire the NG's). SWA plans to take every single one of them. The difference is they are getting a killing financially on those airplanes. Between being the launch customer, credits and discounts, it's pretty substantial. Boeing owed SWA billions of dollars. They decided to roll those into credits and discounts on the aircraft. Every time SWA takes an airplane, what they paid for it vs what it's actually worth is quit the spread. That's what BJ is talking about. As of today we will not be taking all those airplanes and flying them. Some will be sold. Some will be leased. Selling airplanes to a lessor and then get the cash is a normal financial exercise in the airline business. It is odd for SWA to do this. SWA owns close to 90% of the fleet. Only 29 Max's are leased,(out of 223) per 2023 annual report. SWA almost always buys airplanes in cash. Thats why they have in the neighborhood of 14 billion in unencumbered assets. It's been one of their strength's for 50 year's. If cash flow can't fund the capex, they usually don't buy unless it's on favorable terms.

SWA can't grow profitably anymore and keep buying airplanes. That's the bottom line. And worse, the only airplane Boeing can offer them are a 175 seat airplane. Which SWA does not need. It's a mute point anyway. As soon as EM finds a CEO to replace BJ, they will call the special meeting and he will be gone. Then the new CEO will decide what happens to all those orders. As other airlines over the last few years have become like banks with their frequent flyer miles, maybe SWA can get into the leasing business.