Jonathan Goodish wrote:



Southwest has been profitable every year for some 30+ years. Their fuel
hedge has expired and been renewed several times. The fuel hedge isn't
the reason that they've been profitable, it is simply one of the
reasons. The big reason is that management runs the company well and
treats the employees well. In turn, the employees work hard for the
company and the customers. That "big reason" is missing in most of the
other major carriers.

I am concerned, however, that Southwest is beginning to lose its spark,
and mess with a model that has worked well for 30+ years.


JKG

I should have said Southwest has been profitable recently primarily
because of fuel hedges.

When Herb stepped down the special status of the employee groups is
slowly descending into the morass that is typical of all U.S. airlines.

The other reason SWA has made money is by operting only one type of
aircraft (one of the cheaper to buy and maintain). It prevents them
from being an international carrier, though, which means they are not
full service in that sense.

They have also saved money by not playing with the other airlines, such
as interline baggage transfers, which does not serve their customers well.

Having said that, all in all, SWA does better than most, but not as good
as they used to. And, their fares are generally higher than the
compeition, although they seem to be able to gloss over that.

I use American often to fly LAX to IAD for $350 or so round trip. I
also use SWA to fly SNA to OKC, $650 rount trip.