The airline blogosphere (and twittosphere) was abuzz when Southwest Airlines announced their bid for Frontier Airlines. Folks started talking like it was a done deal. Southwest’s bid was $170million versus Republic Airline’s $109million, it seemed there was no question who would be the victor. However, Southwest was unwilling to move forward without a labor agreement and Republic won the right to purchase Frontier Airlines.
The largest roadblock to Southwest’s victory was their plan for the integration of the Frontier pilots. Southwest wanted Frontier pilots to be at the bottom of the seniority list, while Frontier pilots wanted equal treatment and the ability to stay in Denver (where Frontier is based).
If this all goes through (the shareholders still need to give their approval), it will create a very interesting airline. Republic already serves as a regional carrier for larger airlines (AmericanConnection, Continental Express, United Express, US Airways Express and Delta Connection). This summer, they purchased Midwest to expand their fleet and routes. Knowing how Republic works, I doubt they will combine their airlines under one brand. They have already talked about moving aircraft between Midwest and Frontier, but for now, the cute animals get to stay. I am sure there will be some consolidation between the airlines to save money, but probably for most people it will look like two separate airlines.
It will be interesting to see how Frontier and Midwest grow and of course how Southwest will grow (or shrink) at Denver.
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.
Showing the Alaska RNP read outs. Image from AlaskaAir.com
Alaska Airlines is working on ways to save a few million gallons of fuel per year. The fuel savings will not only trickle down to a passenger’s pocketbook, but it would also cut down on environmental and noise pollutions.
Throughout the summer Alaska has been testing next-generation flight procedures at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) that have been dubbed “Greener Skies.”
The new procedure breaks away from the traditional “stair-step” method of descending into an airport. With current protocol, the control tower will assign altitudes airliners will cruise at. The pilot will descend to the new altitude, increase power to maintain the altitude, and wait for the next step. The new process takes advantage of Required Navigation Performance (RNP). With RNP the decent is a smooth, linear, and controlled approach without the need to level off. Alaska says the new system could save 2.1 million gallons of fuel and 22,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year.
Elliott Pesut, Twitterer for Alaska Airlines, pointed out to me that Alaska is the only major U.S. air carrier with a completely RNP-equipped fleet and fully trained crews. I am sure Alaska won’t be the last. Southwest Airlines recently announced their entire fleet of Boeing 737-700’s have the new technology and are in process of training their flight crews. Alaska is working to gain FAA approval to start using it by next year.
It is great to see an airline taking the leadership role of bringing this technology to the forefront and motivating others to follow suit. I hope that all aircraft at SEA will use the technology and it will spread to all airports and aircraft in the US.
If you haven’t seen it already, Southwest has one awesome rapping flight attendent. He got to show his skills again to celebrate Southwest’s new service to LaGuaria airport.
In January Southwest’s mechanics’ union approved the airline to complete some of their maintenance work in El Salvador. Before the program starts, some Southwest dispatchers are raising concerns about their ability to handle the new international operations needed to get the aircraft to El Salvador.
Southwest states they are working with dispatchers making sure they are fully trained and point out there will be very limited number of the international flights.
With the ever increasing competition to provide lower fares, more airlines have been looking at outsourcing their maintenance work. No matter if one thinks this is a wise move or not, it is important to make sure the people in charge of getting the planes to El Salvador are properly trained to safely get them there, even if there are no passengers on board.
