For anyone interested in the inner workings of SWA, this podcast is pretty good. From my perspective, it contains a few Easter Eggs and hints as to what is in store for SWA.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...t/id1488637686

 

+1

Andrew Watterson continues to impress me every time he is interviewed. Maybe we really can find our way out of the weeds.

 

Is Scott McCartney finally done with his 5 week series of former CEOs that nearly destroyed the industry, crushed labor, and now love to call shots from the cheap seats? About time.
I have enjoyed his show and miss Ben. Holy cow, though, the last few weeks have been painful. One of my favorite interviews with Frank Lorenzo was fairly recently on that show. He was a total ass and Scott went toe to toe with him instead of just accepting what he said as the truth.

I am more of an Air Show kind of guy, but AC gets better guests.

 

Actually the last few episodes of AC have been great. I don't agree on how they deal with labor but they are mangement. The Richard Anderson episode was a great insight about how Delta became the #1 airline in the business. It started with him once they merged with NW. Very interesting how he stated its about the operational side of the airline first, then marketing can play their games. Mx and operational reliability are the core of any airline. EB as CEO of Delta would not have it as good without the frame work of RA set in place at Delta. For those us on the op side of things, it's a great listen. Most CEO's have a finance/lawyer background but the better ones(RA and Gordon Bethune) that have heavy op side background seem to figure it out.

Since SWA fired the last head of commercial side of the business, AW has been doing duel jobs it seems as COO and CCO. Most of these displacements are coming to his people. Granted, they need to be done as far as the network(not displacements) is concerned but make no bones about it, AW is behind a lot of the network shake up. In the end BJ is ultimately responsible but AW is the nuts a bolts of it. He is a lot better speaker then he was a couple of years ago. He is definitely a wonky guy. As the podcast pointed out, BJ's contract is up in FEB and EM's silence agreement also ends on FEB. We may wake one morning and a whole regime change may take place at SWA. 2026 should be interesting.

 

Thanks for posting. It’s a great listen and only reaffirms my respect and admiration for AW.

 

That episode was pretty much the only one worth listening to. I agree he is remarkable among airline CEOs and he definitely defined the way the entire business has changed.
I can only take so much DUI Doug as cohost. The episodes with Muñoz are generally informative and a lot more coherent. I enjoy the show, but they are leaning a lot on the rotating cohosts lately, which is good and bad.

 

For a more colorful podcast, go back and listen starting at 35:00 of the Time on Wing podcast (Brett Snyder- Founder, Cranky Flier LLC). Keep in mind this was prior to Elliott's arrival. Seems to me that these guys may have been doing some consulting work for Elliott or Elliott took their comments to heart and ran with them.

 

At least Scott hasn't gone off on a rant about the 1500 hour rule (can we call it the ATP rule?) for a while. He had a bug up his rump about that for a few years.

 

I stopped calling it the 1500 hour rule a while back. The reason being, everyone against it talks about how arbitrary a number is. It's not necessarily about the hours, its about the certificate. Certificates require certain standards in every industry. There has to be a line somewhere, and I fully believe everyone sitting on a 121 Flight Deck should meet the same standards. Its the ATP rule.

 

Love it. Agree 100%