Hmmmm....one would think that if the person posting the rumor on Flyertalk were in a position to be in the know, he would know how to spell Mobil and "intact" (in tack). But maybe not...

Exxon-Mobil moved its world headquarters to Las Colinas, which is just outside Dallas, from the Exxon building in New York city in like the late 80s or early 90s and is a big Dallas booster now. So that part of the rumor at least has some consistency (as opposed to saying it would be Royal Dutch Shell or something). However, there has been no spike in trading in the past few days, and the common is off over 10% in the past 3 months. Despite laws to the contrary, you can almost always look back before "surprise" annoucements and see at least some indication that some people had some idea that something was coming. If this rumour has any truth to it at all, then everyone has done a great job of keeping a secret until virtually the day before. Also, Colleen, Herb and Gary all exercised options or sold shares in the past 30 days; if they knew about the potential offer, they would probably have been advised against doing so, although under some circumstances they could do so.

Moreover, I just looked back at the rumour and saw the stuff about lower fuel prices. Wouldn't Exxon have a duty to its shareholders NOT to sell jet fuel at 45 cents a gallon (note the reference in the description of the rumour)? Unless the preferred is convertible, Southwest wouldn't be a subsidiary...and even if it were, I'm not sure that public accounting rules would permit what is described in the rumour. Southwest was paying an average cost of jet fuel of .89 per gallon at 12/31/04, and it uses about 1.2 billion gallons per year. So Exxon would be just giving Southwest about $530 million per year. Also, I find it hard to believe that the so-called "cost of production" is HALF what the stuff sells for on the open market, or that, even if it were, it could be transferred for production cost. There's a little thing called per-gallon taxes that comprises part of the sales price of every fuel sold (which is why they dye home heating oil so folks don't escape taxes by pumping it into diesel powered trucks and cars, because it's the same stuff).

Know what? IMO, this rumour is crap. But I'd be interested to be proven wrong.

Best,

Bill

[Edited 2005-02-21 07:07:17]

Quoting TxAgKuwait (reply 148): You know, if you went back about 20 months on here I think you would find a post where I suggested that Southwest Airlines Co keep the -200s, and reduce the seating capacity to 56, and let 'er rip from Love Field. Yes, you could do it with -500s.

What would the CASM be on a 56 seat -200/-500? Isn't the main drawback of the -600 that it's too "heavy" in relation to its seating capicity to operate economically? I agree with OPNL...if you're gonna do it...it's gotta be the -500s...DAL-MDW on a -200 is cruel and unusual punishment...I don't care how many seats you rip out.

Quoting Lincoln (reply 145): a large part of the reason why Pepsi divested Tricor Foods several years ago (or whatever they're called -- the brand owners for KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) -

The corporation was call TriCon it has since been renamed Yum! Brands.

Why does nobody listen to me when I talk about codeshare numbers?  
I've been tracking the stupid things since it started..

Quoting Planespotting (reply 128): If they are just announcing it to the employees, couldn't it be something more employee related....like something about profitsharing or stock or vacation time or a bonus or something like that.

And how many times has this been brought up in this thread? Heh...

Quoting Ntspelich (reply 121): Yeah, I was the one oddball from BWI who jumped up when Colleen was seeing who all was there.

Haha that was great...we thought it was funny how there seemed to be at least one person for every city she called even when she got to the point where she was randomly calling the most unlikely cities you'd find in OAK. haha.

Talking to some of my supervisors, they say it's gonna be something huge. The most common guess is that it's going to have something to do with the Wright amendment.

"Rumor has it new hire training at SWA is slowing down pending an announcement by Exxon-Mobile to make an offer to buy SWA. $80 a share for the preferred stock. SWA would be in the neighborhood of $1-$2.5 billion a year in profits. This is assuming scheduled service as it exists now with fuel being lowered to approx 45 cents per gallon of Jet A. (exxon-mobile cost of production)

All existing SWA management would stay in tack and it would result in $10-$15 billion cash infusion to fuel growth and expansion globally with SWA service. Common stock is predicted to trade in the $35-$45 range if this in announced. (lots of early retirements)

Interesting rumor."



Umm except for the fact that XOM doesn't produce enough Jet-A to meet WN's demand. This is by far the most ridiculous notion on this thread.

First of all XOM is greatly reducing their US and global downstream assets in an attempt to strengthen investment in their upstream activities which means their downstream group (located in Fairfax, Virginia not Texas) does not have near enough money allocated to them for such a purchase.

Secondly XOM does not produce Jet-A for $0.45 per gallon!!!! That is so beyond absurd! That is $18.90 per barrel!! I guarantee that they are not paying less than $25 for the crude alone, factor in production, transportation and other costs and its closer to $30, minimum!

Thirdly why the hell would WN be the one to make an announcement that they were being bought out by XOM? And why on earth would they do it in Chicago?

I think a rumor about them buying 744 and flying them to Mali would have a little more merrit.

my bet is international hops. they're going to announce caribbean, canadian, or mexican service. it makes a lot of sense, and, as of right now, it's the only thing lacking in their business plan.

can a 737 be ETOPS certified? or do you really need ETOPS to fly to the bahamas and places like that?

>>>can a 737 be ETOPS certified?

Sure, Aloha does it from the west coast to Hawaii, don't they?


>>>or do you really need ETOPS to fly to the bahamas and places like that?

The Bahamas are no problem (Freeport about 105 nm from FLL, and Nassau about 200nm from FLL), and routes from Florida to most other Carribean destinations keep you within 162nm of a shoreline. That's the max distance you can go with only lifeVESTS onboard; if you have lifeRAFTS you can go further.

They are going to announce development of the 737 Replacement! j/k.

Doesn't Southwest usually make their major announcements on Thursdays?

As for me... not sure what it could be. They've made a lot of unusual moves in the past year. I'll guess they're either adding Canada or the Carribean.. --or-- some sort of agreement with United or US Airways to take their quality pre-owned 737's from them......

I would still bet it's the Wright Ammend....they are going to go around it and make amr and dfw mount a losing attempt to try to hold them to it to test the legality of it....

They are bringing back the 737-200 and making it only be 56 seats and flying them as business club seats for the special business customers, and fly them out of DFW!!

well it would be nice! someone else posted something similiar about the 737-500's!

we will just have to wait and see!
Alex

>>>They are bringing back the 737-200 and making it only be 56 seats and flying them as business club seats for the special business customers, and fly them out of DFW!!

Did you mean DAL Love? If you're flying out of DFW, you wouldn't need to limit to 56 seats...

The announcement is that Arthur Andersen is no longer their accounting firm, and that as such they're restating their earnings from the past 10 years to show heavy losses.  

Quoting Wjcandee (reply 150): Also, Colleen, Herb and Gary all exercised options or sold shares in the past 30 days; if they knew about the potential offer, they would probably have been advised against doing so, although under some circumstances they could do so.

People in positions like that sell on a fixed schedule, regardless of what is or is not about to happen.

It eliminates even the possibility of an inside trading charge.

N

Could it be that they are actually announcing the code share routes?

Especially since the announcement is in Chicago, I think they are going to make a point of letting people know that they can now get to all of the remaining ATA destinations by changing in Chicago. I went to Southwest's schedule, and although you can't do it with all city pairs yet, you can interconnect flights to ATA destinations. You can book a flight to Honolulu from Pittsburg in May

Quoting Cactus739 (reply 159): Doesn't Southwest usually make their major announcements on Thursdays?

Again...this rumor speaks of an announcement to be made at the Message to the Field...meaning it's going to be announced to employees, NOT the general public!! It's not an official press statement. I suppose they might announce at the message something that might soon be an official public annoucement but as of now, it's an announcement to the company. So if it does later become a public announcement, it may come on a usual Thursday.

Quoting CasInterest (reply 165): Especially since the announcement is in Chicago, I think they are going to make a point of letting people know that they can now get to all of the remaining ATA destinations by changing in Chicago.

This would not be such big news for the company. I doubt everyone will remember where they were when all ATA destinations were included in the codeshare.

I'm telling you, for this to be as big as it's hyped to be, it has to be something dealing with the core of the company. Something that will change how the company traditionally does things.

How about a codeshare & interline baggage handling alliance with Skylink Airways which will allow WN to offer future seamless international connections via BWI. This Washington Post Story about a month back talked about Skylink Airways.

They're changing the name of the company.

It will now be known as "jetOrange"  

Quoting EA CO AS (reply 168):

This would be funny if a not for a growing portion of the fleet in Canyon Blue.

"Canyon JetBlue"

Seriously, I would give the nod to assigned seating as the technology is already present.

Craig
MKE/UES

WN is purchasing the fixed wing division of Anchorage based ERA aviation to begin service in Alaska and western Canada.

http://www.flyera.com/

Quoting Lowecur (reply 138):

Quoting Lowecur (reply 138): Rumor has it new hire training at SWA is slowing down pending an announcment by Exxon-Mobile to make an offer to buy SWA. $80 a share for the preferred stock. SWA would be in the neighborhood of $1-$2.5 billion a year in profits. This is assuming scheduled service as it exists now with fuel being lowered to approx 45 cents per gallon of Jet A. (exxon-mobile cost of production) All existing SWA management would stay in tack and it would result in $10-$15 billion cash infusion to fuel growth and expansion globally with SWA service. Common stock is predicted to trade in the $35-$45 range if this in announced. (lots of early retirements) Interesting rumor.

Pure BS. Absolutely pure BS. No one is stupid enough to pay $80 per share of preferred stock in ANY airline, not even Exxon-Mobile board of directors. Just the debt load alone it would create would cripple the solvency of the parent company.

Pure BS. Absolutely pure BS

You're right.

















It's actually Wal-Mart that's buying them.  

How about WN buying WestJet?

Just a thought. Although they lost big money in the 4th quarter and may not be an attractive takeover target

If it's a fundamental change, it'll be assigned seating and maybe business class. Or maybe an option for an assigned seat in business class with open seating in the rest of the plane. But most likely just plain assigned seating.

Best,

Bill

Quoting Wjcandee (reply 174): and maybe business class

WN is in the process of changing their interiors and seat configurations. They aren't even finished. Why would they go through and start all over again?! That one wouldn't make sense to me.

I have it on good authority that the announcement for Tuesday is that there will be no announcement on Tuesday, and, further, that the next big announcement will be -next- Tuesday...  

Quoting GentFromAlaska (reply 170): WN is purchasing the fixed wing division of Anchorage based ERA aviation to begin service in Alaska and western Canada

Uhhh...Yeah  

Let's see... An airline with seemingly none of it tenants in common with WN... Less than 0 fleet commonality (Boeing!?!? Who the heck's Boeing...We do have Convairs, though), and a route structure that doesn't even touch (AFAIK) WN's current service footprint.

Seeing as that would make absoultely no sense, I suppose it is within the realm of possibility...

Though seriously, what routes can one catch a Convair 580 on with them? Might be worth a trip to Alaska...

Lincoln

No, wait - I have it.

WN is buying Greyhound and operating them as "Southwest Express," repainting the buses in canyon blue and orange.

They are buying the A380, installing "SWA upper class seats", and along with that buying micky d's and will feature a macdonalds express in all aircraft. Finally adding a few new routes...........
1.BWI-DUB
2.MDW-LHR
3.HOU-HNL
4. intra island hawaii flights! (in other words....buying aloha!)  

Quoting EA CO AS (reply 178): No, wait - I have it. WN is buying Greyhound and operating them as "Southwest Express," repainting the buses in canyon blue and orange.

That's great!

Wisked along in comfort at the altiude of roughly 8 feet.

altitude even....

Go WN, and leave the driving to us!

Silver1: That's why you'd remember where you were! But I agree, it would be a huge departure from Southwest's culture of egalitarianism, and probably won't happen. Assigned seating is something else.

One thing that assigned seating would do is address one place that Southwest really differs from other airlines in a not-so-good way. And that is this: because everyone wants to get on early, Southwest's agents have to aggressively question people who want to preboard for a reason. A close relative, who is in his late 70s and my cousin and I were on a business trip together a few years ago. He was going to ISP via BWI. We were taking different flights on different airlines, but were all at the airport at the same time. His was first, so we walked with him to Southwest. He looks like he's in great shape, and doesn't look his age, but he wears out if he doesn't sleep well, which he hadn't. He was plainly exhausted from the trip, although he refused as usual to admit it. We were concerned that he'd get a little trampled getting on the plane. Accordingly, we said at the gate counter, "Can you preboard him?" not, of course, realizing what a big deal it is to do so at Southwest. "Why should we preboard him?" said the agent sternly. Ouch. Both my cousin and I at the exact same time and in the exact same tone of voice said, "Because he's OLD!" Right in front of him. Then we felt bad. Our relative chuckled, however. "That's not a reason to preboard him," said the agent. Then I realized how the open seating changes what would normally be a courtesy to an older person into some kind of wierd privilege. It's doubtless an unintentional consequence, but it IS a consequence. Our relative said, nicely, and a bit embarassed, "Well, actually, I would appreciate it. I also have had a quintuple bypass and I have two artificial hips." That did it, even though the bypass and the hips are actually the reason he still gets around so well. This taught him to mention this at Southwest on his couple of subsequent flights on them. At the BWI connection, he meekly mentioned it to the agent, who apparently responded, "Oh my GOD! Here, let me help you find a nice seat near the gate! Do you need a wheelchair?!" He felt so guilty he said no, no, just being able to get on a little early would be helpful.

Once he discloses his litany of medical conditions, nobody at Southwest has been anything but incredibly nice to him, but it is an interesting consequence of the open seating that one has to be, shall we say, brutally honest about one's medical problems in order to have a little extra time to get on board. Given that many older people have become travelers, and value travelers at that, seating assignments might be helpful.

Just a thought.

--Bill

OOOOOHHHH, I just heard the leaked story of the big announcement!

SouthWest is going to pay for my flight ratings and hire me as a 1st Officer!

All joking aside, donations are accepted.

Quoting OPNLguy (reply 162): >>>They are bringing back the 737-200 and making it only be 56 seats and flying them as business club seats for the special business customers, and fly them out of DFW!! Did you mean DAL Love? If you're flying out of DFW, you wouldn't need to limit to 56 seats...

hehe yes I meant DAL my mistake
Alex

Maybe they are buying Amtack ....

Well, I was at work tonight, but folks that I talked to after work said that at the message to the field in BWI tonight Gary was asked about the big announcement and he said that he would like to know what it was because he has no idea as to what it is. I don't know if this is management keeping things on the dl until they're to be public or not, espicially since I wasn't there. Take that for what it is.

NTS

The annoucement is that UAL is going to buy them to "consolidate" the industry and own Chicago, take the company into the Chap. 11 for 5 years so that they don't have to pay their bills and can cancel the Union contracts, and change the name to "southwasTED"

So what time is the shin-dig?

ASSFO

Quoting AS739X (reply 188): So what time is the shin-dig?

6:30-9:00PM Central Time

WN will begin 2X daily A380 Service to Baghdad and Kabul from DAL.

 

TUNisia

Well, it is 1102am, Central Time, and all is quiet on the Southwest Front.

In the few days since this thread started, I have heard variations on the rumor saying that the announcement will come on Tuesday (Today), Thursday, within ten days (which would be Friday) and by FALL, so its anybodys guess. I've heard that at last nights BWI message that Kelly acted like he knew nothing about such an announcement, so mabye it was all a rumor....we'll have to wait and see, I guess...

DC

Quoting Swacle (reply 0): Taking the risk of getting flamed off the board here for posting about rumors, but...

190+ replies. I don't think you need have worried. Whether or not it goes anywhere it was a good thread. Thanks.

Whether or not it goes anywhere it was a good thread. Thanks.

Well I dunno about you but alot has been built up here and if I'm not satisfied with an announcement by the end of the night the you-know-what is gunna hit the fan!  

LOL that's gonna go for everyone. Brace yourselves!  

It's all rumor...there will be no announcement tonight.

yay! 7:30, tonight!! Can't WAIT!  

My vote goes to this rumor being nothing. I have heard things like this over the years and it rarely pans out.
Hopefully there will be a great announcment though. Keeping my fingers crossed but not getting too excited  

SWA TPA

Like the 80s SWA ad jingle said, "tic toc we're watchin the clock...."


NOT