WOW WT. Glad to see you admit that the, WN effect, as you state, rather than the actual statement of the "Southwest Effect" internationally will in fact take off. It will happen, it is coming, you can deny it all you want to, just wait...
I have said it all along... perhaps if you would take your hands off your ears you would hear that I have said that it is precisely because the domestic market is stagnant and that WN's costs are not much lower than their legacy peers that the WN effect won't work.
The whole reason for going to the near int'l market (Caribbean/Latin) is because the fares are higher due to longer flights and less competition.
Of course WN will stimulate some new traffic. B6 and other carriers have proven that it can be done - and they have run AA out of many markets in the process. That is exactly what WN hopes it will be able to do with its more central/southwest US market strength which other low fare carriers including B6 do not have to the same degree as WN.
WT stop trying to blame SWA for doing a very big business decision for fuel hedging in the 2000's for an excuse for other airlines not to make profits. ALL the other airlines had the very same choices to do the very same thing, IF they wanted to, but they all chose not to, or could not do for the mere fact that they did not have the credit to do so. Does this include your airline, Delta, you bet it does. Why didn't Delta chose to take advantage of all the fuel hedging like SWA did all those years? Too bad, A day late and a dollar short for Delta huh???...
who said anything about BLAMING WN? no one is blaming WN for having the financial strength going into 9/11 that they were able to hold onto fuel hedges which the legacy carriers had to dump as their finances deteriorated.
What I have said is that WN benefitted to a very great degree because of its fuel hedges and it grew because of them, including growing into other key airline hub markets such as DEN.
However, WN was hoping that F9 would have died years ago - and tried to buy them to make it happen - but F9 is still there but UA's share loss has leveled off.
With average fares at DEN well below other large markets, WN is in no business to launch into another hub raiding exercise, which is why they ran with their tail between their legs from PHL and ATL.
WN doesn't have the fuel cost advantage it once had and in fact has had higher fuel prices than DL who has used hedges and the refinery to push down fuel costs and US who has not hedged.
Now, IIRC, Parker has said that AA will not hedge or reduce it dramatically (correct me if I am wrong) which means that new AA could be subject to huge fluctuations in fuel prices but also means that if large parts of the industry decide that hedging is not worth the risk (US got burned by hedging in 2008) then DL's ability to produce its own fuel at lower costs than the market becomes an advantage that WN can't duplicate.
"we up the bar today and then we will up it again tomorrow."