Can't Wait To Hear Dave Excuse

[CaptBud330]

Southwest announced earnings soared 41% to $106 million this quarter and they are forcasting increasing their current fleet of 385 planes by 30.
We continue to serve the most populated area of the country with a paultry 279 aircraft. I am sure Dave will wring his hands and speak of woe when he announces our loss. He will blame it on the hurricane and Northeast blackout, like we were the only airline affected. He might again say "If only he had JetBlue's contract, we could make money!" Hate to tell you this Dave, but I make LESS at U then my counterpart at JetBlue.
HEY DAVE, DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO RUN AN AIRLINE? Time to fish or cut bait Dave. My bets are on the bait.

 

[fast]

Well Hawk,
We know you are lurking around. Care to answer that really good statement.
Let me do it for you.
You have NO idea what the F*&@ you are doing.
Have no clue on how to make a profit. But we are glad to see you have mastered the use of the internet. :angry:

 

[Baret4]

Southwest announced earnings soared 41% to $106 million this quarter and they are forcasting increasing their current fleet of 385 planes by 30.
We continue to serve the most populated area of the country with a paultry 279 aircraft. I am sure Dave will wring his hands and speak of woe when he announces our loss. He will blame it on the hurricane and Northeast blackout, like we were the only airline affected. He might again say "If only he had JetBlue's contract, we could make money!" Hate to tell you this Dave, but I make LESS at U then my counterpart at JetBlue.
HEY DAVE, DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO RUN AN AIRLINE? Time to fish or cut bait Dave. My bets are on the bait.

"If only we had Jetblues contract"

The CEO of JetBlue Airways David Neeleman makes $200,000 a year. The CEO of US Airways David Siegel makes $600,000. I would have to concur that if CEO Siegel had JetBlues CEO contract we might make a profit. Good point Dave!

 

[USA320Pilot]

Southwest Airlines is a LCC with a CASM of about 7.5 cents, whereas, US Airways and the other network carriers have much higher CASM's.

This cost difference caused Delta Air Lines (as a network carrier with the highest industry unit costs) to post a Q3 net loss of $168 million.

Interestingly, Continental and Northwest Airlines, who until recently had the only major airline domestic alliance, which took about four years to fully integrate, each posted modest profits.

After reviewing the monthly ATA report, pricing improved in September closing out a relatively strong third quarter, but clearly demand remains sluggish and industry analyst's fear that returning capacity in 2004 may break the positive recent revenue trend.

September pricing improvements were at the top end of analyst expectations where domestic and system RASM increased 7.8% and 5.7%, respectively.

Atlantic RASM's was flat -- off 0.1%, Latin RASM's increased 3.1%, and the Pacific RASM's realized a 1.7% improvement. Yields were weaker in the three international entities showing slight domestic increase of 1.5%.

In my opinion, the positive performance was largely due to capacity cuts. Most analysts and credit rating agency’s anticipate the positive trend will persist in October with continued strength throughout the holiday season (November and December), but to a lesser extent than July and August as the industry is faced with returning capacity and the reinstallation of segment fees.

I believe we may be at the beginning of a slow rebound, but a sharp rise in industry capacity could stunt the recovery because demand may not match supply.

Baret4, your comments regarding CEO pay is accurate, however, Dave Siegel also has a performance bonus equal to his salary. Therefore, his 2003 pay could be $1.2 million, six times that of David Neeleman.

Regards,

Chip

 

[fast]

So explain to me why he would get a PERFORMANCE bonus if the performance of USAIRWAYS is losing money? Please.

 

[ClueByFour]

Two thoughts:

If the majors try to shrink to profitability, they will become feeders for the LCCs flying between major cities. Ultimately, the current LCCs can make money flying you from coast to coast on a $300 walkup fare, or $220 R/T.

Seigel is overpaid. He has done nothing but slaughter union contracts with the aid of Chapter 11 (which is roughly as difficult as shooting fish in a barrel with a Remington pump-action 12 guage) and is trying to introduce hoards of RJ's post bankrupty (which Gordon Bethune can train any monkey to do, and apparently has). Nothing deserving that kind of scratch.

I work for a $2 billion a year division of a $8 million dollar a year fortune 500. My division was bottom line profitable to the tune of about $149 million (really, really bad year) and the VP who runs the division made slightly north of 1.5 million, after excercising about a half million in options. Neeleman has a track record of starting carriers that later go on to either big profits or huge sales with lots of shareholder happiness. Colleen Barrett at LUV made $600k or so, and cashed 1.6 mil in options (on something like $387 million in profit).

Tell me again why Seigel is worth this kind of scratch?

 

[T-bone]

Hate to tell you this Dave, but I make LESS at U then my counterpart at JetBlue.
HEY DAVE, DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO RUN AN AIRLINE? Time to fish or cut bait Dave. My bets are on the bait.

I have a friend who just interviewed with usa3000. She said starting pay and bens would be higher than what she made at u. Also that usa3000 paid for training and uniforms, something not done at u.

This thread is making a good point we gave 1.8 billion in concesions and the other carriers are paying the same or better. So dave stop crying wolf he's left us, I think?

How about it dave every one but us can make money, even though some pay better. Whats up with that?

 

[Bluestreak]

Doesn't Southwest out source their heavy maintenance? Is that why they turn a profit? Or is it because they pay their FAs less than US Airways? Or maybe it's because there pilots work under more productive work rules.

 

[deltawatch]

Hey he has a plan, give Dave a little more time. Once he successfully converts our fleet to 2/3 RJ’s, cutting our pay to half what our counter parts make at Southwest and then spins off what little is left of mainline to United, he’ll be the industries shining star. Most of us will be unemployed or at least on food stamps. He'll be getting another big bonus.....

 

[wings396]

We continue to overlook the fact that most , if not all at SWA are now higher paid than us. We have given until it hurts and then some, and this company still can't make a dime. This would lead me to believe that the fault lies within the so called business plan or lack of one. We have nothing to do with the way this company is structured or operated, that is what the big bonus boys are SUPPOSED to be doing.This company had several chances to standardize the fleet....is that not what the Airbus deal was meant to do??? If CO & NW are starting to turn the corner WITHOUT any concessions, then something is really wrong here. Our biggest problem is our lack of competing with anyone. We have been run out of everywhere except PHL & CLT by SWA,B6, Air-Tran and DL. Our Management still thinks that the RJ's are going to be the saving grace of this airline, when in fact they are leading to our demise in several markets. A while back there was a quote in USA Today stating that when an airline keeps shrinking as we do, they are only "SAVING THEIR WAY OUT OF BUSINESS."
If that is not textbook US Airways, I don't know what is.

 

[oldiebutgoody]

The CEO of JetBlue Airways David Neeleman makes $200,000 a year. The CEO of US Airways David Siegel makes $600,000. I would have to concur that if CEO Siegel had JetBlues CEO contract we might make a profit. Good point Dave!

Is that BEFORE or AFTER Dave S. granted himself stock (NOT options) worth over 7.5 mil? :angry:

 

[Kev3188]

Doesn't Southwest out source their heavy maintenance? Is that why they turn a profit?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually,they are increasing the amount that they bring in-house. By the way, their ramp also makes more per hour than several major carriers. <_<

 

[wings396]

I don't have the exact wage, but the ramp ans C/S people are making around $24 an hour at the top. I work with a former SWA employee that was in C/S and was up to $14 with less than 5 years of service. They had to relocate to a city where SWA did not fly, and were forced to leave the company. This company has pointed the LOSS finger at our wages for years and now our wages are lower than ever, and we still lose millons. Maybe it is time for management to evaluate themselves a bit more......Their run and hide from the competiton plan is not, and never will work. If we stay on our current track, we will fly from CLT to PHL all day long with some International routes and nothing more. As soon as the competiton figures out we are making money in the Islands, they will run us out of there too.

 

[AOG-N-IT]

PineyBob,

C....All the above !!!!

 

[USA320Pilot]

Nobody likes this restructuring and W-2 is not the issue. From a labor issue JetBlue has an employee to aircraft ratio of 70 employees per aircraft and US Airways is about 103 employees per aircraft. In management's eyes it's productivity.

An interesting flight crew legacy carrier comparison is that United no longer has "duty rigs" and receives hard time pay, where United's flight crewmembers receive only hard time pay. For all employee groups, American Airlines' employees are paid about 13% less than their counterparts at US Airways.

However, the big issue remains depressed revenue and too high of unit costs.

The company business plan calls for $600 million per year in additional revenue when the RJs and are fully deployed and the alliance(s) are fully integrated, which will help. But, the dramatic LCC expansion will hurt domestic RASM going forward with industry overcapacity, as well as competition for business travelers from the LCC's.

The company believes its unit costs are to high, with the mainline cost per available seat mile (CASM), excluding fuel and unusual items, of 9.52 cents.

Management will likely focus on driving down unit costs with items like flight crew "Pref Bid". There will be about 300 Pilot and 700 to 800 Flight Attendant positions eliminations, and a reduction of Crew Schedulers, when this system is implemented by June 2004.

Other management cost carve out programs include the Pittsburgh hub negotiations and the A320 heavy overhaul.

Finally, MDA will operate 85 aircraft in less than 3 years and will be included in mainline results. This operation will represent 23 percent of the total mainline fleet, all things being equal, with 279 mainline aircraft for a total 0f 364 jets.

Separately, in January the company will return two A319s from the desert and take out two B737s from service.

Regards,

Chip