Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 heading out of Las Vegas
In years past, Southwest Airlines has been known to consistently make a profit. However, Southwest wasn’t able to keep up in the economic downturn and the end of hedged fuel prices. Then the airline saw three quarters of losses, but no more!
Southwest announced today that it made $54 million during the second quarter this year. This is far less than the $321 million they made during the same time last year, but better than being in the red.
Of course, like most of the world economy, Southwest is not fully in the clear. They are still taking a careful approach to the near future. Southwest chairman and chief executive officer Gary Kelly points out that, “demand for business travel remains weak, and we continue to stimulate traffic with more discounted and promotional fares.” He isn’t confident that Southwest will see a profit for the third quarter. Southwest is cutting about 4% or 1,400 employee positions through early-out offers, hoping to keep the airline profitable.
To compare, Continental Airlines posted a loss of $213 million, American Airlines posted a $390 million loss and United Airlines posted a $28 million profit. Additional airlines should be posting their second quarter results in the next day or so.
Image: gTarded
Not a welcomed guest!
A scorpion and five of its babies hitched a ride on Southwest Airline flight 2093 from Phoenix to Indiana. About 30 minutes before touch down the passenger was messing in his carry-on and felt a familiar stinging sensation — he had been stung by scorpions before. He notified the flight crew who notified emergency personnel on the ground.
The passenger ended up being treated at the airport, the hitch-hikers were exterminated, and the aircraft was fumigated overnight. Southwest recently started allowing pets to fly on their aircraft, but I don’t think this is what they had in mind.
Source: IndyStar.com
Boeing 787 at the Everett, WA plant
Is Boeing threatening to move jobs out of Washington State unless their labor union commits to a no-strike clause in the next contract? I was waiting for a bit more information on the reports of Boeing’s ultimatum to their Washington machinists’ union before blogging about it, but details have not been forthcoming since U.S. Representative Norm Dicks from Washington broke the story a couple of weeks ago:
“The whole thing comes down to, can they get a long-term agreement with the union, with a no-strike clause. That’s what ultimately has to happen here in the next two or three or four months or they are going to go elsewhere. I think if they get this agreement, they would stay.”
The no-strike clause rumor comes in the wake of Boeing’s purchase of a 787 rear fuselage production plant in South Carolina ’“ prompting concerns that Boeing will move more of its production out of the Everett and Renton, Washington plants.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO District 751, who represents Boeing’s machinists in the Pacific Northwest, issued a statement assuring members that no proposal on a no-strike clause had been presented by Boeing. They also expressed disappointment with Boeing allowing rumors to spread this way: ’œTo use politicians as microphones to deliver a message, creates problems and does nothing to improve the relationship [between Boeing and the Machinists’ Union].’ That being said, the union asserts that they will look at any possible routes to keeping jobs in the state.
Washington State greatly benefits from the two large Boeing plants, and I’m sure residents would hate to see more Boeing jobs go out of state. Boeing has also been hemorrhaging money in the delayed production of the Dreamliner Boeing 787, so I can understand their desire to avoid costly strikes that could cause further delays. Boeing’s method of self-preservation, however, leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and I tend to feel for the union’s dismay over having all this leaked to the media before sitting down with labor. It will be interesting to see how negotiations pan out, and how strong public opinion will play a part.
Sources: Seattle Times, IAM District 751 Image: andyconniecox
TheAirlineBlog.com is now AirlineReporter.com
Thursday the 23rd will mark this blog’s first year and it has been a VERY exciting year. I have been able to participate in great adventures and meet some wonderful people. I have gone from family and friends reading a year ago to thousands of people reading from 111 different countries from around the world (still no readers from Azerbaijan, but 5 from Albania!).
One issue I have run into with creating this blog is name-confusion. There are other websites out there with similar names and it has caused confusion for readers and others in the industry. Even though I will lose time and money with this transfer, I feel it is the best move to do now before the blog grows any more since I wouldn’t want readers to confuse my blog with others.
I am VERY excited with the blog’s new name. I surveyed over 50 people I trust and spent hours looking at different possibilities. AirlineReporter.com has everything I wanted in a new domain name (and I get to keep my cool wing-A logo). A lot has changed in the last year, and I’m planning more changes, but still keeping the core of what this blog is about. I already have one additional blogger and editor, Amy Franklin, and I hope to grow in the number of bloggers in the near future.
Even with growth and change, I want to keep the basic concept of the blog the same: being able to share what is going on in the airline business in a way that anyone from industry experts to airline hobbyists can read and enjoy. And of course there has to be a little humor thrown in there too (Crazier Than Ryanair medal anyone?).
I will slowly transition to the new name, still posting on here to remind people to change over their bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc for a while. Thanks everyone for all your support and I look forward to bringing you the same great blog, under a new, better name: AirlineReporter.com.
Boeing 757 VQ-BCn special livery "Northern lights"
Yakutia Airlines is based in Yakutsk Russia and was founded in 2002. It has fleet of about 40, made up of mostly Russian built aircraft. This one shown in the photo is one of three Boeing 757’s currently being leased from Icelandair.