Herb Comments On Webcast

[BoeingBoy]

More Facts and Less Emotion,

"Ignoring all the facts is dangerous at a time like this."

Ok, I'll start with the facts.

1. Pay rates - my counterpart at WN makes the same as me flying the same plane - 737.

2. Benefits - my counterpart at WN has better benefits than me.

3. Work rules - my counterpart at WN has generally better work rules (meaning more restrictive).

4. Average seniority - here you are right, we are at a disadvantage.

Jim

 

[PI-RDU-SS]

Dear Orwell,
I think they should have had you as Daves Asst in his presentation. Your comments above are as bad as Daves. I can't believe you would call SW sewage. If anything it is the Legacy Carriers that are in the "toilet" and headed for the sewer lines, not SW. Where were you when AA, BN and CO tried their best to flush SW back when they started in Texas?

Poor poor legacy carriers who have not realized that the days of the overpriced tkts are over. How can you call a carrier that changed the entire industry sewage and is taking down all the once proud carriers and laughing all the way to the bank.
The legacy carrier "pooped in their mess kit" and now have to eat it.(also the flying public was tired of having served to them as a meal or snack.

The reason that the media gets all excited about lower cost carriers is that they know they will get more ad dollars as the carriers battle it out in the media. The airports like them because they get more revenue from people driving into their airport and thus they get the parking revenue. The flying public knows who dropped the fares in markets SW goes into. It is SW and not the legacy carriers. They airport authorities know this and fear if LCC don't make it in a market then fares go back through the roof when they exit. The problem with SW for the legacy carriers is that they don't pull out of markets.

SW has done an excellant job with a real business plan and leadership from Herb. They are on the offensive while the legacy carrier management sit around and complain. I think I should get to complain as I have seen my tax dollars wasted on mismanged airlines and a bail out of some carriers that never should have gotten a dime.

SW is in the prime of their life as they will have to change too as they no longer have lock on being only LCC. They will probably have to put some type of IFE in their jets but their plan will be good for many years to come. I don't doubt that there will be a day when S/W growth opportunities slow and they will get some of the cost out of wack and be in trouble but it will not be anytime soon.

I think Dave had it all wrong, Herb is Rocky. He is one tough fighter who took on all the legacy carriers could throw at him for 30 years and he is the winner. Dave S is actually Apolo Creed, (AKA Mr. T according to him on the web dog and pony show.)the once mighty champion that did not take Rocky serious and was beaten.

I assume that the sewage wine that you reffered to came from the First Class selection of the legacy carrier that you must work for down in TX as 71% of you post are on the AA site. Maybe you can get Crandell to call Dave S and he can call Herb and tell him to raise his fares like he did Howard Putnam at BN.

I do not work for SW but I have admired what they have done. They have a simple plan, they operate it very well. The flying public must like what they offer because many drive past legacy airports to get to fly on them. They have a great corporate culture and great leadship in Herb. There employees all enjoy and are proud to work for the airline. Idoubt their are many happy to get up in the AM and go into work for most legacy carriers.

SW is at most some toliet paper and they are wiping your **** all over the place. Your companies at the ones in deep dodo! Herb is laughing when he wipes you off the map and flushes your airline down the toilet into the sewage line.

Get real if you think the flying public is going to pull for the carriers that had monopolistic pricing for years and are getting the pay back now.

I know what it is like to be proud of the airline you work for. it had a great corporate culture, it had a great management team, simplified fleet. It was a legacy carrier and is now part of USAirways. My prayers go out to US people after watching a "Harvard MBA" plan for the future. How they can call that the "Go forward plan? He admitted he had no plan or were was it? He blamed Herb for him having the nerve to drop right into PHL and not go to some other city. Herb is a NJ street smart fighter and this lawyer beat the Harvard MBA in his own back yard. I would loved to have seen the looks on the faces of the SW mgt team when they looked in on the "Go forward to a quick demise plan" Dave presented yesterday.

If I still worked at US I would have a picture of Dave's face on "Uncle Sam" saying "Dave wants your job" Not Herb. Last I saw Herb added 35,000 jobs at SW and Dave is minus 20,000 jobs at US. Now who want your job with those facts.

I think the new business plain should be called, "going no where" We are still studying what the effect of SW will do to us in PHL. They don't seem to remember what SW did to US in Calf, BWI, FLA and to a lesser extent RDU/ORF markets.

Walk up fare just dropped from $500 from RDU PHL to $49. for introductory fare. Do you think people down here are going to support US and make SW leave so they can then see US up the fares back to $600. No way will never happen.

I guess you could call US Rocky's trainer. (Burgess Meredith) when he told Rocky he could have been a champ but, "he did not have any management" and neither does US.

Dave real morale booster for the US employees is his admission that if SW gets only 4 more gates at PHL it is over with for US. When the CEO of company says that he has no plan or gives anyone hope for future to rally around.

 

[USFlyer]

The only way to solve the seniority problem is to realign everyone using some ratio. For example, 3 years of service becomes 1 year of service pay-wise, vacation-wise, etc. This is the problem of laying off by years of service. Most non-union companies, when faced with the need to layoff, lay off at all levels to keep things like this in check.

 

[avek00]

Keep in mind that WN keeps its labor costs down primarily through growth more than anything else.

 

[orwell]

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to conduct a careful analysis of my postings. I'll keep you in mind in the future should I need any reports, graphs etc. done in these areas. Well done.

Secondly, I never said WN was sewage, but that it was the analog of sewage - which I still stand by - in the sewage/wine analogy. Fact is, a gas station can open up across the street and charge significantly more than its competitor across the street and customers will still flock to it. An airline cannot do anything of the sort. One flight a day on WN or another commodity carrier vs 12/day on a meanspirited legacy carrier is enough to drag pricing down across the board - just as just a teensy cup o' sewage can do to a barrel of fine wine.

Also, kindly shut your trap about "bailouts." The government and its heavy-handed regulation of a supposedly deregulated market have cost the majors far more than bailouts. What percentage of airport taxes and fees do you think actually are reinvested into the infrastructure? What effect do you think the changes to the TWOV program are having to the majors vis a vis the commodity carriers you champion? No bailouts are fine - just put an end to the enormous tax burden that the majors have continuously shouldered.

Don't worry - I'm already "real" I know the flying public is boisterously rooting against the evil legacy carriers. Never mind who invested in decades of building up the infrastructure that is now supporting the darling commodity carriers.

Just remember that your God Herb and his pals are charging low fares for one reason and one reason only: it's the only way they could carve a niche out. If the legacy carriers go under - as you so desperately wish them to do - all impetus for providing low fares will vanish. That, added to the fact that the commodity carriers' costs can only rise as aircraft and employees mature, will make for an interesting evolution.

Cheers.

 

[mweiss]

just put an end to the enormous tax burden that the majors have continuously shouldered.

You mean to tell me that those taxes I see on the tickets I buy are actually paid by the legacy carriers? And here all this time I thought it was me!

 

[orwell]

You mean to tell me that those taxes I see on the tickets I buy are actually paid by the legacy carriers? And here all this time I thought it was me!

Sigh. I can see it's time for a remedial lesson.

You pay the taxes. The airlines, however, collect them. That increases the apparent cost of a ticket. Price is king - nothing else matters. Hence, the perceived cost of a ticket is increased when taxes and fees are ladled on to the base fare.

But that wasn't the main point, which you missed entirely. All these years the airlines have generated enormous revenues for local, state and federal entities. But try to get a new runway built. The point I was trying to make is you whine about bailouts when not enough of the taxes YOU pay as a consumer were reinvisted in industry infrastructure all along.

 

[orwell]

...you must work for down in TX as 71% of you post are on the AA site. Maybe you can get Crandell to call Dave S and he can call Herb and tell him to raise his fares like he did Howard Putnam at BN.

.

One more question for you RDU - if my calculations are correct, this posting in the US forum shall bring my posting share over in the AA forum down below 70%. To what percentage must I lower it so that your clairvoyance will assign me to a new base - say, PIT or PHL or CLT? If I manage to get my DL postings above 50, can I get a transfer to ATL? SLC would be ok too.

Then again, don't forget AA has hubs in ORD and MIA, too. Could I possibly keep posting a lot in the AA forum and be assigned by you to one of those cities?

Thanks.

 

[airlineorphan]

usfliboi scoffs:

700. for some one who continues to be suspended and half right half the time, you sure do seem to think youre always right. Must be a wonderful world you live in !

in response to 700W's statement:

WN DOES NOT UTILIZE PART-TIME at their AIRPORT LOCATIONS.

WN is the HIGHEST % of UNIONIZED employees and they make more then US employees by a mile!

Ummm, you would pick an occasion in which 700W is absolutely correct to sneer at his accuracy record.

700W,
Thanks for pointing this out. Please keep up the good work. The cost problem for the legacy carriers has far more to do with the onerous weight of fixed costs than the terrible burden of having to pay employees to do the work. Perhaps what we need at US Airways is a higher level of unionization. Siegel forgot that comparison in his spiffy powerpoint presentation.

-Airlineorphan

 

[700UW]

for some one who continues to be suspended and half right half the time, you sure do seem to think youre always right. Must be a wonderful world you live in !

Excuse me? I was only suspended one time after the airbus appeal, so get your facts straight. I only post facts, not the diatribe that you post.

You were the one proven to posting false information and pretending to be something you are not, don't be mad at me for catching you in your webs of deceit.

And I am man enought to admit when I am wrong, unlike yourself. I will stand-by my statements about WN and about when dave announced the new service.

If you don't like it, I suggest you don't read it!

PS. Did you enjoy your stay in the cornfield?

 

[wnbubbleboy]

Southwest is going to kill the Philadelphia revenue environment. Kelleher does want your job at Southest for entry level part-time pay and benefits.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

We don't hire part time. We hire fulltime. Our start rate is around 8.50 for the ramp and the top out of 24.00 after 12 years. Also, we have TWU-AMFA-TEAMSTERS-IAM representation here at Southwest.

 

[funguy2]

(Did I mishear, or din't Siegel say they'd be in financial/covenant trouble again by June?)

I have not yet watched the video conference, but, when the ATSB Loan Pre-payment was announced, they stated that they were required to keep $700Mil of Unrestricted Cash. At that time (March 13, 2004), they had $925mil, and had an average unrestricted cash loss of $1.05mil/day. When I did the math, that came out to potentially busting the loan covenants by mid-October 2004, assuming the average rate of cash loss and no asset sales.

There was one poster (sorry, forgot who) who criticized the $1.05mil/day, since I included the cash loss from the prepayment, which may be a valid point. So, if you excluded the cash used to pre-pay the loan, that gets the daily unrestricted cash loss to just under $0.5mil/day. This would extend my date until about mid-March.

However, all of the info I have provided are averages... The reality is that cash flow should be relatively strong through mid summer, as lots of folks will be paying for their summer travel plans from now through mid-July. Since traffic falls off dramatically for Sept and Oct, the cash flow should fall of dramatically prior to that (lets say mid July). So US Airways will probably have ok cash flow until mid-summer and then see dramatic reductions in the unrestricted cash balance in late summer/early fall. I suspect this is when we will begin to hear about asset sales and such. Also, this is probably why Seigel needs to get concessions done prior to mid-summer (in order to reduce cashflow paid out as wages to balance the redced cashflow collected as sold tickets.

The one interesting factoid I did gather during all of this, was that US Airways unrestricted cash balance prior to bankruptcy was around $500-600mil, which seems perilously close to the $700mil covenant to me.

 

[Justaramper]

Page 26 , Article 10

FYI ...WN DOES have the right to staff with P/T employees and does...

http://www.twu555.org/


Current Top rate is $22.28 at this time NOT $24/hr...

 

[BoeingBoy]

Justaramper,

"FYI ...WN DOES have P/T Employees"

The reference you gave says Wn MAY have P/T employees, not that it DOES have P/T employees.

I have no personal knowledge wheither they do or don't.

Jim

 

[Justaramper]

Give an Airline the opening and they will use it....You can be 100% sure of that fact..


http://www.southwest.com/careers/