WN "Major Announcement" Tuesday...

stirling · Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:09 pm

I have this from a very good source:

Southwest Airlines will announce they have purchased the entire state of Texas, installing Herb Kelleher president and King for LIFE.
American Airlines is banished to Oklahoma.
DFW is declared closed until further notice.

3201 · Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:32 pm

> 2. Coupled with an aircraft purchase (DL 's 733?)

Actually I heard it's NWA's DC9's. What do you think they'll replace them with? Could they get Boeing to reopen the 717 line, and convert it so it can also build 753's on the same line while they're at it? Sure would be great to see 753's rolling off the line in LGB. Could they maybe put a sidestick in it too?

Silver1SWA · Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:15 pm

Quoting Deltaflyertoo (reply 49):
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 significant.

Actually, that would be big news, especially to the company, and the city of Dallas. It was the Wright Amendment that forced WN to develop the very system that turned them into the airline they are today. Remember...it was supposed to kill WN.

I'm trying to figure out if this news is supposed to be more shocking to the company internally, or the general public. According to this rumor, this announcement will come at the Message to the Field meaning it's a message to the company, not the public. It's not going to be a public press conference. There are a couple things I could think of that while maybe silly and insignificant to the general public, would be a pretty big deal to employees. I don't know...

And lets remember. Whatever news this is, it supposedly going to be shocking to someone, or everyone. Opening a new city is hardly something significant that you will remember where you were when you heard it. UNLESS it's A. Hawaii or B. an international city.

IAHtown · Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:06 pm

I think it will be seating assignments. They announced last year that they were thinking about it.

Planesmart · Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:37 pm

Or perhaps a joint venture with Virgin to acquire US or Delta?

CB777 · Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:23 pm

WN WILL ORDER THE A380.......

ContinentalEWR · Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:08 pm

WN Announces Nonstop Service From Dallas/Love Field to London/Gatwick. Twice Daily B737-700 (with winglets, peanuts, and beverages).

ContinentalEWR

ual747-600 · Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:10 pm

How about an order for more 700's?? They've already received 195 of the 281 they have on order. That's only 2 years (plus a little) of deliveries for them at current rates.

ual747-600

OPNLguy · Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:46 pm

>>>How about an order for more 700's?? They've already received 195 of the 281 they have on order

To update, we took our 198th -700 delivery on Thursday, which gives us a fleet total of 200 of them.

ual747-600 · Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:53 pm

OPNLguy,

Thanks for your post. How many options do you guys have??

UAL747-600

OPNLguy · Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:56 pm

I'd have to go back through a SEC report somewhere to make sure, but I think it's at least another 150-200 or so...

ERJ170 · Sat Feb 19, 2005 11:12 pm

I belive the announcment will be Hawaiian, Alaskan, Mexican, and/or Caribbean service

4jaded · Sat Feb 19, 2005 11:25 pm

My guess is perhaps they too are going to enter the Charlotte Market. Before Airtran has time to ramp up something substancial. This would position them in two ways. Put another nail is US's coffin and keep a damper on Airtran's growth.

ERJ170 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:00 am

Sorry 4jaded.. not going to happen.. no room to start a WN operations.. they require at the least at least 3 gates.. CLT at this moment.. has 0 free.. unless CLT plans to force US out of some of their gates.. which is extremely unlikely (unlike PHL)

hiflyer · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:21 am

LUV is buying UAL...which is why the Chicago announcement. Tilton set the stage for it this week with his speech...

grin and running for cover Smile

2H4 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:30 am

...Where's Ants? He's the one who scoured the Airbus press release URLs and found the UPS A380 order press release page before it was released. Perhaps he can do the same at WN, Embraer, Boeing, etc.....

2H4

atrude777 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:35 am

If it was going to be a name change id think...

Number 1 Airways :-P

I don't know. Any guess sounds very good and likely, certainly, i-remember-where-I-was-that-day news.

I am going to go on a far, far outstrecth here. Buy Indy Air, form a regional hub somewhere, and direct flights into MDW. flights from CGI, MWA, SGI, SGF, etc etc...regional flights!!! You never know!

I just hope it is a good thing for Southwest, and it helps them further.
Alex

PVD757 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:39 am

I'vem heard that WN will definately be announcing another new city for 2005. Perhaps this is it?

txagkuwait · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:39 am

They have purchased Addison Airport and will commence their Wright busting activities from that airport.

Regis · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:41 am

WN will emulate B6 and announce a big order of Embraer jets - probably the E190.

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Aaron Lupton - AirlinesOnPrint

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © KBMphotography

RayChuang · Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:42 am

I think the decision to start flying to COS (Colorado Springs, CO) could happen within the next 4-5 months.

That could be BAD news for UA, given that UA turned DEN into essentially a fortress hub and charges fares accordingly. UA will probably step up TED service out of DEN in order to compete against WN at COS.

KarlB737 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:13 am

My guess is based on the fact that WN usually makes a decision WITHIN what they are already doing. Specifically I believe that they will further acquire a larger portion of ATA including ATA Connection which would give them the tie to the smaller markets that they have toyed with when they were considering RJ's a while back.

That decision may or may not include the replacement of the Saabs or addition of RJ's to those SELECT markets.

I look at this overall stategy as a conservative cost decision while acquiring more markets and additional gates at MDW.

Karl

OK, tell me what you think or hurl a pie in my face.

leelaw · Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:26 am

Quoting KarlB737 (reply 71):
OK, tell me what you think or hurl a pie in my face.

That won't be necessary. Your speculation is among the more logical I've read in this thread so far. BTW, thanx for your posts with links to relevant and interesting articles from the IndyStar and elsewhere. Don't be timid about replying more often.

FLAIRPORT · Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:49 am

In reguards to jetBlue...what makes you think that Neeleman will make the same mistake he made with Morris Air? I'm sure WN would love to have B6, but Neeleman can't work for WN and unless he thinks he can do better in another 7 years, he won't budge.

As for aircraft types...717 and 757 are going to be/are currently off production...but, if an airline thats a good customer ordered a lot, there is a chance it might be back in production...but slim to none!

I think it will be a new city...but it will either be NAS (if its international) or CLT...or COS...

honestly, I don't know, but I'll be paying attnetion.

txagkuwait · Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:23 am

Hmmmm

ChicagoExpress is for sale.

Southwest per se has never had a commuter affiliate.

The TranStar subsidiary of Southwest Airlines Co did engage Rio Airways to feed TranStar to Hobby...from Killeen, College Station, Laredo, Beaumont-Pt Arthur, Lake Charles, and Lafayette.

Operating under the TranStar name and charging fairly decent fares, Rio (dba TranStar Skylink) carried probably as much O&D as they did connecting traffic. It was he!! getting on the LFT-HOu or LCH-HOU flights.

So, if this is going to be something totally revolutionary, my guess is Southwest buys themselves a commuter feed.

Jj · Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:38 am

Some things I don´t see happening here:

WN buying another airline.
WN introducing another aircraft type.
WN introducing assigned seating.

Now, with what´s left, I think the most likely are either a new city (perhaps international) or additional orders for 737´s, maybe including 739 with the extra doors to fit more pax in it...

burnsie28 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:46 am

About COS

Southwest told COS just 2 years ago that it would be a minimum of 7 years before they would consider COS. So who knows. I dont think they will get a great following here in COS, many dislike them and said they would take Frontier over WN any day, even if that means driving to Denver. So we will see what happens, then again, people here in COS are pretty stupid, they think just because Southwest would come in means that air fare will go down, yeah right, look at PVD, prices are still not cheap, also the same goes for cities with jetBlue, Boston, Buffalo, prices have not really gone down.

A319114 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:48 am

I think WN is going to replace all their 737-300 with a319s Laugh out loud

j/k

jerion · Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:24 am

SOUTHWEST TO PURCHASE AIRTRAN AIRWAYS.

Boeing Nut · Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:42 am

An uneducated guess here, but it's an idea.

If it's a new aircraft acquisition, I'll speculate that it will be EMB 170's and not 190's. Why? I think a smaller capacity/more frequency strategy is what has worked for Southwest. Also, I don't think an decrease of around forty passengers would work. However, an aircraft of around half the capacity of their 737's I think would fit into thier system.

Again, just an uneducated guess out loud.

srbmod · Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:43 am

I'm going to go a step further with the assigned seating idea, and say that they will introduce a business class on certain routes. FL has shown that a business class can work and be profitable for a LCC. Plus WN can mirror their codeshare partner TZ in some ways.

As for a name change (I've got a better chance of rolling 7 on the point roll 5 times in a row than WN changing their name), perhaps National Airlines?

New a/c type? Not until Boeing develops a replacement for the 737.

M&A action? While typically not something they do (Morris Air is the only airline they've merged with), perhaps they will be purchasing some assets from another airline.

flyXJT · Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:51 am

Quoting Boeing7E7 (reply 43):
Quoting AirTran737 (reply 14):
Continental owns those gates don't they?

Airlines don't own gates anymore, airports do.

Actually, airlines do own some gates, while others are leased from the airport. I know for us at least that we own one and lease another. FL737 does know what he's talking about.

My guess is WN is going to announce Sirius radio on all their aircraft and paint Liberace on the side of 20 aircraft.... Insane

pw

ps- Tom, you guys owe us some garbage bags...

wjcandee · Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:13 am

I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with Herb. His lifetime of drinking too much and smoking even more has left him looking singularly unhealthy in the photos/videos that I have seen recently. OTOH, I'm not sure that they'd give a big buildup to something that would be so sad for everyone at Southwest. But that day's gonna have to come at some point.

stlgph · Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:20 am

Service to Canada!

Other expansions out of Chicago. My guess is that at some point and time -every- city in the SW system will be connected to Chicago.

Wright Amendment goes beyond an airline. It is federal government related and there is no way that disbanding this amendment could be done without the public knowing per the open meetings act. Learn how government processes work.

AirlineBrat · Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:24 am

After giving up on Virgin America, Richard Branson has decided to invest 49% into WN and they will be introducing UpperClass where the lounges used to be Nuts

leelaw · Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:27 am

Quoting STLGph (reply 83):
Learn how government processes work.

Amen. Repeal of the Wright Amendment would require specific legislation (a bill, or an amendment to a bill) based by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President.

Reggaebird · Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:52 am

It is definitely an order for Boeing planes. The two possibilities:

1) SWA is ordering 25 Boeing 787s! 15 would be 787-3s for transcon, hawaii and high-density routes and the other 10 would be 787-9s for new European and South American routes.

OR

2) SWA is ordering 60 Boeing 767s! 40 woul be 767-200ERs for transcon, hawaii and high-density routes and the other 20 would be 767-300/400ERs for new European and South American routes as well as very high density domestic routes. Obviously, this would be a life-saving boost for Boeing's 767 line. It also makes sense because SWA doesn't have the cargo-carrying requirements that have contributed to many 767 sales losses against the much better suited A330.

Either of these announcements would be newsworthy and would change the way that SWA does business.

Mark my words!

Reggaebird

Silver1SWA · Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:23 am

Quoting Wjcandee (reply 82):
I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with Herb. His lifetime of drinking too much and smoking even more has left him looking singularly unhealthy in the photos/videos that I have seen recently. OTOH, I'm not sure that they'd give a big buildup to something that would be so sad for everyone at Southwest. But that day's gonna have to come at some point.

The more I think about this, the more I have to agree. I think the hype that "you will remember where you were when you heard this" is aimed at the company and it's employees. Of course it's all speculation, but I think people are jumping the gun and getting a little out of hand with some of these guesses.

Herb retiring for good would be a big, BIG deal.

Reggaebird, I hope you are joking.

Also, lets not forget. This IS a rumor and may not be anything at all. Plus, what's so special about Chicago? Why not wait til next week for the Message to the Field in Dallas?

Mexicana757 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:33 am

Ooh an announcement in Chicago. Hmmmm... maybe Southwest will be buying UAL. Laugh out loud

glideslope · Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:03 am

It's going to be seat assignments. It's why I fly B6 over WN every chance I get. WN going this direction will be a serious issue for B6.

PlanesNTrains · Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:05 am

The two ideas that I tend to think sound the most interesting, and perhaps mildly possible, are assigned seating and the 737-900X.

I can't imagine that if there were a capacity issue that they would need to make that large of a jump, when to date they haven't gone for the -800, but maybe the numbers work better for them. Besides, the load factor that they run tends to indicate that a higher frequency on select routes would make the most sense vs adding larger metal. Okay, so I talked myself back out of the -900X Insane

.

It sounds like the employees are ultimately who this is geared to, so it must be something more internal, though i can't imagine what.

-Dave

venuscat2 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:07 am

I seriously doubt this would happen, but, maybe Southwest will buy Independence Air (or at least part of their CRJ fleet) and start a Southwest Express operation. They'd first start flying "feeder" routes into focus cities. The 737's would still operate point to point, but the CRJs serve as more of a "shuttle bus" to the current WN cities.

Just an indea. Like I said, highly doubtful, but I think it's a good idea.

texan · Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:53 am

Herb looked well last time I saw him a couple of weeks ago, still going strong. If he's the one delivering the speech on Tuesday, I might be able to get a heads up early on Tues if he comes through here like usual. I like TxAgKuwait's idea of WN buying ADS and killing Wright from there!

If it is going to be a big announcement, I see it dealing with either an acquisition, international code share, or a new plane order. For an acquisition (most unlikely of the three above options), it would be Alaska. All but 26 mainline are 737s, they are profitable, and they are WN's main competitor on the West Coast. It makes the most sense. Just my opinion.

Texan

sllevin · Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:51 am

Quoting Gigneil (reply 37):
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.

Actually, the 737-800 in a WN configuration will not hold 189 pax. You have to go to 29" seat pitch r thereabouts on the -800 to get 189.

The -900 would hold 189 Y pax in a more WN-like 33" seat pitch.

Quoting DLKAPA (reply 34):
I believe that would be known as the asymptote.

Somewhat more accurately, in this case, the odds of the WN order of the 787 would be considered "asymptotic to zero."

Smile

Steve

SLC1 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 9:36 am

Quoting Texan (reply 92):
For an acquisition (most unlikely of the three above options), it would be Alaska

If WN bought Alaska I would kill myself, it would be a tragedy above all other airline tragedies.

atrude777 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 9:42 am

Quoting Venuscat2 (reply 91):
I seriously doubt this would happen, but, maybe Southwest will buy Independence Air (or at least part of their CRJ fleet) and start a Southwest Express operation. They'd first start flying "feeder" routes into focus cities. The 737's would still operate point to point, but the CRJs serve as more of a "shuttle bus" to the current WN cities.

Just an indea. Like I said, highly doubtful, but I think it's a good idea.

i had already stated this thought, see reply 66.
Alex

[Edited 2005-02-20 01:45:26]

planespotting · Sun Feb 20, 2005 9:54 am

They are announcing that they will disregard all minimum flight time requirements for former interns and that interns will also get preferred hire status and a 1 year maximum time until Captain Upgrade. Big grin

Since none of us can really say what it's gonna be, I figured I would shoot for it all

2H4 · Sun Feb 20, 2005 10:10 am

Quoting Planespotting (reply 96):
They are announcing that they will disregard all minimum flight time requirements for former interns and that interns will also get preferred hire status and a 1 year maximum time until Captain Upgrade.

Oh hell yeah....

2H4

P.S. - Have they made any progress on my idea for a special livery called "Intern One"? It would have pizza boxes, student loan bills, Ramen noodles, beat-up Tempos, and empty wallets painted all over it...

LoneStarMike · Sun Feb 20, 2005 10:18 am

Some of the guesses here seem pretty far fetched, so I'll add my own far fetched ida.

Pissed off about the Wright Amendment, Southwest announces it will move its corporate headquarters from Dallas to Chicago. Smile

And no, I don't think this would really happen.

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net