Hi All,

Taking the risk of getting flamed off the board here for posting about rumors, but...

Rumor has it that WN will be making a major announcement at the Message to the Field on Tuesday in Chicago. "You'll Remember where you were when you heard it" is what we are hearing around here. Anyone have any other info or heard anything about this?

Seeing as some aircraft company that we do a little business with is in Chicago, possibly a large aircraft order?

DC

Quoting Swacle (reply 0): Rumor has it that WN will be making a major announcement at the Message to the Field on Tuesday in Chicago. "You'll Remember where you were when you heard it" is what we are hearing around here. Anyone have any other info or heard anything about this?

This reminds me of the days right before B6 ordered the 100 190's. "An announcement that will change the way we do business." etc.

VERY exciting Swacle! Maybe B6 and WN will merge?? lol. j/k.

I've heard the same rumor, with the same wording, but it's supposed to happen sometime between now and this fall.

Prior to yesterday, there was also supposed to be another big announcement, and, of course, all that was announced were the legs of the PIT service...

I'll believe the next "big rumor" when it rolls up to the gate..  

Other than that, there will be no further rumors until after the merger...  

Probably just something with them and ATA. Maybe like WN is absorbing TZ or something. Who knows, guess we will have to wait for it to come.

jetBlueAtJFK

WN will announce the purchase of:

The USAir gates and slots at LGA for $150 million cash.

Quoting ACAfan (reply 4): WN will announce the purchase of: The USAir gates and slots at LGA for $150 million cash.

LOL. Yea right.

Quoting ACAfan (reply 4): WN will announce the purchase of: The USAir gates and slots at LGA for $150 million cash

Honestly the shape the industry is in right now coupled with the tremendous advantage WN has over the whole industry right now becase of their huge fuel hedge I would rule nothing out, WN has a huge advantage which they are going to use to reshape the industry.

Probably just something with them and ATA. Maybe like WN is absorbing TZ or something. Who knows, guess we will have to wait for it to come.


Highly doubtful. At the Message to The Field that I attended last week, they made perfectly clear they are NOT interested in buying ATA or acquiring any of their aircraft.

This is the first I have heard about such an announcement. I don't know whether I should be excited or scared.

[Edited 2005-02-19 04:02:32]

[Edited 2005-02-19 04:03:04]

Here's the scoop...

SWA is placing an order for 250 Yak-40s, with options for another 250....

Oh, April Fools Day isn't for 6 weeks yet, darn!  

Quoting Swacle (reply 0): "You'll Remember where you were when you heard it" is what we are hearing around here. Anyone have any other info or heard anything about this?

I've heard the same thing. What is interesting is that unlike most rumors which tend to vary in content...this one seems to keep getting repeated verbatim.

At any rate, I love the whole..."You'll remember where you were when you heard!" part. A little grandiose if you ask me. Seems like a year or so ago we were supposed to be "shocked" by the announcement of PHL service. My recollection is that reactions ranged from surprise to disinterest. Should there be a big announcement I doubt it will rise to the level of a "9/11" or "JFK Assassination" type event. Are they really saying we'll some day balance our grandchildren on our knees and tell them about the day SWA bought ATA?



Having said all of that, here are my guesses for what might be coming:

1. Major product upgrade(IFE/Seat Assignments)
2. Merger/Acquisition(TZ/US/B6..pick one)
3. Second Fleet Type(E190/787)
4. Wright Ammendment Repealed(Unlikely it would have been kept a secret)
5. International Ops(Canada/Mexico/Carribbean)[Possible with new Lifevests?]

Whoa! I bet that's it! I bet it's the Wright Ammendment Repealed. That would make the most sense to me right now. And from what was said at the Message in OAK about how they are working on that, I'd say it's possible it's a done deal. And that would be HUGE news.

[Edited 2005-02-19 04:10:33]

Quoting Silver1SWA (reply 10):

I agree that Wright Ammendment being repealed would have the most significance within the context of SWA's history. I just don't see how you can keep getting a piece of legislation repealed a secret. Now...WN pulling up stakes and moving across to town to DFW...that is a whole other matter.

>>>Whoa! I bet that's it! I bet it's the Wright Ammendment Repealed.

With all due respect, making an announcement on something happening that depends upon Congressional action is sort of like trying to herd cats--you can try it, but you're likely to be unsuccessful.  

I know...I thought about that. But I dunno...It's the only thing listed above that is currently and actively being worked on. Not that is has to be something we've guessed so far...

[Edited 2005-02-19 04:27:12]

Quoting ACAfan (reply 4):

The USAir gates and slots at LGA for $150 million cash.


Continental owns those gates don't they?

how about an off the wall city announcement....ANC or SJU, mabye? USAirways is also trying to sell to UA, it seems, now...how about buying their shuttle operation and opening 3 new cities in the process?

DC

On a more semi-serious note, Carribean service would be operationally possible, once the lifevests are installed in January 2006. Florida to the Virgin Islands? There are many places down there one can get to and still stay within 162nm from the nearest shoreline...

I'm no WN expert, but from Silver1SWA post, I'd say these "message to the field" meetings are held at each different station individually. So, could this announcement be something more station specific, like they acquired more gates at CLE? Just a theory.

Okay lemme clean up...

The gates US Airways uses in LGA is owned by Continental and leased to U.

US Airways is not trying to sell to UAL. In case you didn't notice...US Airways just received $125 from Air Wisconsin. Considering most of this is to hedge against UAL dropping them from the feeder agreement, one also has to stop and think - why would Air Wisconsin invest in an airline that wasn't going to survive. Plus...lets be honest. UAL is having a helluva time trying to raise funding and has had to move around dates for its POR, loan covenant requirements, and the exit date - now Fall 2005.

US Airways Shuttle, formerly independent as Shuttle, Inc., is not a stand alone entity that can be sold off as so many people thing. Back in the mid-90s US Airways purchased Shuttle, Inc. from the banks that held it and merged it into US Airways, Inc. You want a shuttle operation? Just get the slots in DCA and LGA and be done with it. The only thing US would have to do is sell a few slots at these airports so you can run the shuttle...but lets be honest. If the Shuttle markets were really doing poorly - they would just attempt to reassign the slots to other markets.

>I just don't see how you can keep getting a piece of legislation repealed a secret.<

It is illegal, so it wont happen.

I really doubt that the announcement has to do with WN buying any other airline or their assets. Usually these things are kept hush hush until they are publicly announced. If it is as big as it sounds could it be international operations and ETOPS certification on a fleet of 787s  But I really think we would have heard some things previously if they were going anywhere further than the Caribbean.

Quoting GoCOgo (reply 17): I'm no WN expert, but from Silver1SWA post, I'd say these "message to the field" meetings are held at each different station individually

They are actually held at 5 different cities each year, each one covering a certain region. The OAK message was mainly for the west coast. It's basically a "sate of the airline address" for the employees.

I'm off on Tuesday. I'm thinking about heading out to Chicago for this announcement. Would be very interesting.

Don't forget Southwest has 6 additional gate at MDW they recently picked up from ATA, so I would think they could be announcing a sizable expansion at MDW.
Something along the lines of;
MDW-ALB
MDW-BUF
MDW-MSY
MDW-OKC
MDW-TUL
MDW-SAT
MDW-RNO

And how about red-eyes from the west coast...

[Edited 2005-02-19 05:42:56]

I think it will be an aircraft order...probably some more 737s...or if I really want to go out on a limb a limited number of 787s....yeah right....but you never know. So I am going with more 737s as my guess

Quoting SWAFA30 (reply 9): Having said all of that, here are my guesses for what might be coming: 1. Major product upgrade(IFE/Seat Assignments) 2. Merger/Acquisition(TZ/US/B6..pick one) 3. Second Fleet Type(E190/787) 4. Wright Ammendment Repealed(Unlikely it would have been kept a secret) 5. International Ops(Canada/Mexico/Carribbean)[Possible with new Lifevests?]

and here is my opinion.....

1. Yes.
2. No, WN like to grow slow and steady not swallowing all the other fish in the pond. They already announced codeshares with TZ.
3. Will never happen. One type plane is one of the cores of their business.
4. if this happened WN would not be the first to announce it - this would be news on all the news channels. The city of Dallas and airport people would first announce it, or else the FAA or other government.
5. maybe later. They already added a new city recently - PIT - and like i said above, WN's approach to growth is slow and steady and cautious.

my best guess for this would be an announcement of inflight entertainment coming to WN's planes.

bruce

I'm placing money on the announcement being the beginning of service to COS. The rumor around the airport there is that WN and the City of Colorado Springs were in final talks and basically just getting ready to announce the aquisition of 5 gates on the Auxilliary concourse, ie the entire concourse. The airport is also in the process of tripling the number of restaurants, the renovation is going on as we speak.

I'm placing money into the "COS announced" bin.

Quoting LV (reply 23): I think it will be an aircraft order...probably some more 737s

I can't imagine a 737 order would be so noteworthy that we'd remember where we were when the annoucement was made. 787s, on the other hand....

Very intriguing, to say the least. What time on Tuesday should we expect the announcement to be made?



2H4

787's would definetly be interesting... I still see COS on the table though.

I'll go with the phasing-in of assigned seating. It seems as if more and more people are dissatisfied with the current "cattle car" approach, and B6 and others have shown that assigned seating is well within a discounter's ability to provide.

Quoting PROSA (reply 28): I'll go with the phasing-in of assigned seating. It seems as if more and more people are dissatisfied with the current "cattle car" approach, and B6 and others have shown that assigned seating is well within a discounter's ability to provide.

...Great  

Anyways I doubt it would be that, because that's not really big news, almost inevitable. Anyways, I doubt very highly it has anything to do with Wright Amdendment, because there's no way you could keep that secret in Dallas. Everybody there loathes it, it would definetly leak out.

Seating assignments, it has to be seating assignments and IFE

Okay, my turn.

Wright Amendment? We would have heard especially considering what it would take to abolish.

Different equipment type? Uh, no.

And announcing service to COS? Would that be considered a "Major" announcement?

I'm thinking assigned seating.

My 2 cents.

Atc Rick

...As much as I hate to perpetuate the possibility of a 787 order, Boeing has been damn quiet about that plane lately. Back in late December and early January, I searched Yahoo news for "7E7" and "787" every day, and seemed to find new news every few days. It's now been about a month/month and a half since any noteworthy 787 news has been released.

Sure would be cool...


2H4

The probability of a 787 order from WN is so low that our mathematical system can't accurately represent it.

N

Quoting Gigneil (reply 33): The probability of a 787 order from WN is so low that our mathematical system can't accurately represent it.

I believe that would be known as the asymptote.

Maybe they're gonna change the name of the company. Now THAT would be a major announcement!

I know awhile back there were rumors about WN receiving orders for 737-900's...The big concern with that was, there would have to be 4 flight attendants on board instead of 3...Obviously cost issues there...
Who knows if WN will stay in there same ole ways...Maybe tuesday they will venture out onto the limb and announce the orders of the 787...
I feel that something has to change in a bigger way for WN, if they wanna see profits rise considerably...As someone had mentioned early "WN is going to re-structure the aviation industry"...Have a good 3 day weekend... 

Kevin

In a one-class configuration, there is no advantage to owning a 737-900 instead of a 737-800.

They hold the same number of passengers.

N

...maybe that's why those london ticket offices have opened up... j/k  

I want to say 787, but it might seriously be 757, think of how a wingleted 752 would look in the dark blue, hehe...

Ok really. COS is coming, though if that's major or not you have to decide for yourselves. If it's a major restructuring of the entire industry, then they'd have to also introduce a commuter network, being that commuter airports make up a big percentage of the industry, and that isn't part of WN's game plan, I don't think. I'm not holding my breath for a WN Dash 8. 787 Is likely I think, it's a good point to point aircraft, and WN likes point to point, but how would they use it? They'd need a *gasp* Hub, and Wright would have to be repealed as its their only true hub (that they'll own up to). No way is the city of Dallas going to allow a DAL-LHR flight, and I'm sure there are probably Bermuda issues with that as well.

Maybe they are gonna take a dive into the legacy system, with a legacy network that will include BWI, BNA,MDW,PHX,LAX,SEA, and COS (yes, COS, though to a lesser extent as they will be getting the entire B concourse), and DAL, as well as a CRJ or ERJ order to compliment a 787 order... who knows...

I was just reading an article about Southwest in the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph just two weeks ago that featured a quote from a Southwest press official firmly reiterating their disinterest in COS, and that they wouldn't be there any time in the foreseeable future.

N

that could be, I was in COS back at the first of the year and at that time that's what I was told. Ok COS is out  

I wonder if Herb could be about to announce his retirement? That'd be pretty earth-shattering.

Common! Didn't you hear that WN is going to be the A350 launch customer?  

If you took that seriously... seek help.      
In Chicago... Hmmm... probably:
1. just touting new service from MDW. Making it a major hub like PHX (but less than LAS).
2. Coupled with an aircraft purchase (DL 's 733?)  
3. Unlikely on a 2nd fleet type (As much as I like the E-jets and 787). I could wish... and wish...

SWA is placing an order for 250 Yak-40s, with options for another 250.... My sister's friend's uncle said it was for AN-124s...  

Lightsaber

Quoting AirTran737 (reply 14): Continental owns those gates don't they?

Airlines don't own gates anymore, airports do.

It will NOT be seat assignments. That is not a part of the company culture.

It will most likely BE expansion at MDW. That makes more sense.

While I don't think it is a 787 order, I would secretly LOVE IT!

Robb
Dallas, TX

"You can't spell win without WN"

Dooohhh
Gonna start charging $2.00 for their LUV nuts....
WN can't afford to keep giving away their "peanuts"...
It is gonna be remembered by all the old time WN employees forever....
"Jeezz I remember when our nuts were free"

Don't get too carried away. On the other side of the Atlantic I remember British Midland promising a dramatic announcement the day after tomorrow. What could it be, we wondered? A merger with Virgin? Launch of transatlantic services? (This was long before they actually did so.) A major aircraft order?

They announced they were building a new hangar at LHR... Sigh.

Quoting PM (reply 46): They announced they were building a new hangar at LHR... Sigh.

On that note, I do believe that WN will be replacing the light bulb that keeps flickering in the U on one of their DAL hangars.

Hmmm, should this "major" announcement take place, and should it be something "you'll remember where you were when you heard it" I would have to say that it would have to be one of these things:

1. International/overwater expansion...i.e. Mexico and/or the Caribbean, likely, as someone said before, beginning in the early part of 2006.
2. Codeshare agreement with an international carrier...(Virgin comes to mind)
3. Name change to more accurately refelect their reach (they are no longer only---or even primarily---in the Southwest.
4. Large aircraft order...(Granted if it is the 737NG, it would take an order in the hundreds---yes plural---to make me "remember where I was")...I remember they had been looking into the smaller market...could a 717 order be ready to unfold???...just think...all those flights that are short hops...DAL-AUS-HOU-MAF-ELP-SAT-CRP...........Hmmmm
5. IFE would be interesting, though I think with their recent "movie" partner this is an unlikely scenario.
6. Something as simple (and discussed) as seating assignments would be absolute last on my list.

You know, now that I think of it, a 717 order, while obviously out-of-character for WN would be a good reason to hold the meeting in Chicago...as well as be something that would make me "remember where I was". I wonder if that would even be a feasible consideration...WN COULD expand its fleet beyond the 737, but they have learned the value of true fleet commonality...perhaps an order of 100+ could make it viable...And not much has been mentioned about the 712 lately either...last I heard they were considering taking the charge to close the line.

A 757 order would be out of the question, as the line has closed and WN (to my knowledge) doesn't have a habit of purchasing used aircraft...plus, that would not be a reason to be in Chicago...sure they would be buying Boeing, but it would not affect Boeing in the least as they would not be receiving the funds.

717! 717! 717! 717! 717! pulllleeeaaaassseee 717! 717!

All good guesses but some of your suggestions aren't considered major or ground breaking.

Wright Amendment? Who cares. Thats the same as when the opened PHL and PIT. Not really a big deal. So they connect LAX, MDW, OAK, LAS, BWI, etc. w/ Love field. Not THAT signficant.

COS? Come on, you are going to remember where you were when that one was announced? Whats so special about COS? If you didn't remember where you were for PIT, PHL or the FLorida cities in the 90s, you sure as hell aren't goign to be falling out a chair over COS.

For WN has done and seen it all. The only major announcement that would be shocking would indeed be one of the following, which was suggested above:

New Fleet type
INt'l service
IFE