N92: Thanks for the input. Hopefully, this is just another bad rumor. I certanly hope our folks in PHL have better moral ethics than to abuse their fellow airline peers.
"This slows down the operation and the utilization of the aircraft, which is one of the factors that make WN profitible. I don't see WN going outside the US anytime soon."
I don't believe I ever used the word "soon" in there, did I?
In fact, I believe I said that there were too many good destinations within the U.S. that were more appealing to Southwest and cheaper to get started.
And yes, turn times will slow somewhat on non-U.S. destinations. But that doesn't mean that it can't be done at a nice profit, and at turn times faster than other carriers. I think that, over the next few years, we'll all see the Southwest business model be adjusted as more low fare competition occurs.
"An interesting note: All of the employees were "imported" from other SW cities. No Philly locals yet."
Actually, that's not entirely true. I've met a few ramp agents, and I believe a couple of provisioning agents, who are from PHL. But all the customer-contact positions were filled from other cities. That's not Southwest snubbing anybody, but rather a contract issue, I believe. They have to open a new city up to transfers before they post to externals.
