Southwest Strategy Paying Dividends

[usair_begins_with_u]

About two years ago, a piece of cleaning equipment got lodged inside the pipeline from Texas that transports the 650,000 gallons of jet fuel pumped into airplanes daily at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Southwest Airlines, BWI's dominant carrier, had to bring in costly fuel by truck and plane for several days to keep its fleet of Boeing 737s in the air. Airline officials decided right then they had to build more storage capacity and a new fueling system to minimize the chances of another such event.

But record travel demand and soaring jet-fuel prices maymake the upgrades, which will go on-line in the first part of 2006, even more valuable than originally envisioned.

The extra storage space will allow Southwest to keep its planes filled with fuel that, thanks to use of complex financial hedging strategies, it can buy for less than half what rivals have to pay in spot markets - extending what may already be the airline's biggest competitive advantage.

The new high-tech system will better control flow and emissions by using hoses that tap underground pipes instead of trucks. There will be less risk of trucks driving in the way of airplanes. And it will take only about 7 minutes to fill a plane, compared with the current average of 11.5 minutes. That will make it easier for Southwest to extend another of its competitive edges, its ability to rapidly get its planes in and out of gates and back into the air.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-b...iness-headlines

 

[barbeetantrums]

Good for Southwest. This topic should be moved to their board.

 

[X-U]

Funny how other airlines have been using hydrant type re-fueling for years, but when WN starts doing it, it's a new and revolutionary concept!

 

[WNjetdoc]

Its not new nor revolutionary and we here at SWA have been using it for years also....maybe not at BWI but in other stations.

Funny how other airlines have been using hydrant type re-fueling for years, but when WN starts doing it, it's a new and revolutionary concept!

[post="291413"][/post]​

 

[luvn737s]

Wow you mean to tell me that WN can now shave 4.5 minutes off a turn? Too bad their passsengers are still going through security at about the rate of 4.5 min/per. I would expect that since WN is the primary recipient of the benefit of hydrant fueling, they should be the ones primarily responsible for any future detection of environmental problems related to truck fueling.

 

[WNjetdoc]

Wow you mean to tell me that WN can now shave 4.5 minutes off a turn? Too bad their passsengers are still going through security at about the rate of 4.5 min/per. I would expect that since WN is the primary recipient of the benefit of hydrant fueling, they should be the ones primarily responsible for any future detection of environmental problems related to truck fueling.

[post="291987"][/post]​

Ouch, yet another bitter post from our little "friend". Hey Gomer did you see where I gave you an "atta-boy" on the NWA bb?

It was the, "righty tighty" line, pretty dang funny, too bad you can't stay that way. Don't be a playa hata luvn, WN isn't your enemy, look inside yourself and you will see who the real enemy is.