Using Facts On This Board! A Brand New Idea

[Light Years]

ELP WN, sounds like a deal to me.

 

[TVLOOPS]

It'a been a long , long, long time but the way I now remember Southwest purchased Muse (or merged). Later Southwest also purchased Morris Air. I think Morris was the first to use non-tickets that later became e-tickets. Muse had MD 9-80's and Southwest only used 737.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Lamar Muse was co-founder and initial president when SWA started in 1971. In 1978, Lamar steps down and Herb fills in as interim president, CEO, and Chairman of BOD. Later that year Howard Putnam is selected president & CEO, Herb remains Chairman. In 1982, Herb became permanent president, CEO, & Chairman. 1994 Morris Air is merged into SWA.

I seem to remember a Muse Air also - could AMR have bought them? Anybody remember?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Ok, I found it on the web:

August 7, 1983 - Muse Air
Muse Air began service in 1982 between Dallas Love and Houston with MD-80s. It was notable for being the world’s first all non smoking airline. In direct cooperation with Southwest, Muse was named for founder Lamar Muse. Lamar Muse was the co-founder of Southwest.

March 14, 1986 - Muse Air/TranStar
Southwest purchased major competitor Muse Air and renamed in TranStar in March, 1986. TranStar operated a 2 class service on a coast to coast southern U.S. basis. Muse Air flew DC-9s and MD-80s at the time. Southwest would shut down TranStar in late 1987.

[I think maybe "cooperation" in first paragraph should be "competition" - Jim]

 

[ELP_WN_Psgr]

One might think that Southwest defeated Muse Air in head-to-head competition....and as a result Lamar might not have been at the top of his game.

The real deal was that Lamar's son Mike Muse ran Muse Air, and Lamar had taught the people at Southwest a little bit too well.

One story I like to tell is that Lamar was out on his boat someplace, floating around off of Alaska for all I know.....and Mike started trumpeting for all to hear that he was headed to Little Rock....inaugural flight about 6 weeks off.

Southwest didn't fly to Little Rock at that time.

At a staff meeting the Southwest folks said "hmmm....how do we react to this....we might have liked Little Rock for a station."

The VP/Ground Ops excused himself from the meeting and made a call to an acquaintance at Continental down in Houston...a fellow ex-TTa person.

The question he asked was "you still got any unused gate and counter space at LIT that you want to sublease?"

The answer was "we sure do, how much and when do you want it?"

Returning to the meeting, the VP/Ground Ops asked if they can have a schedule for Little Rock ready to go within a week.

Southwest beat MuseAir into Little Rock...in fact, Muse never started service there. That was the beginning of the end for Mike.

Southwest did end up purchasing Muse and operated it as a wholly owned subsidiary, focusing on longer haul stuff with the MD80s....a good fit.

At one time the ASM cost over at Muse got as low as 4.3 cents. The only problem was yield....in cuthroat predatory competition with Lorenzo's Continental.....yield got down below 8 cents.

Still, Muse managed to turn a profit for a while under Southwest's banner. The bottom fell out, though, when CO cut the 1360 mile LAX-HOU trip down to a walk up fare of $49.

I think you ought to look him up. The only thing I would warn you about, though, is that the current executives would be sliced, diced, pared down to the bone. Lamar expected his company to be agile, think outside the box (I hate the cliche but sometimes nothing else will do), creative, and willing to do anything they asked the people who work for them to do. His folks had a rather interesting span of control.....granted, the system was smaller.....but Station Managers answered only to the VP-Ground Ops.....no intervening layers of managerial blubber. VP-Inflight Service dealt with Fuel, Catering, and Flight Attendants (although they were called hostesses at that time 🙂 )

By the same token he never suffered fools gladly and would have no real problem with telling the head of the IAM/ALPA/or any other group to take a flying ----.

Hope something works out for U, not sure it will, but it appears to this unbiased observer that you all have driven down about 50 miles of bad road on a flat tire, no end in sight, and you are still going in the wrong direction to get the thing fixed.

 

[funguy2]

Bring back Lamar Muse... Kinda Crazy, but not a bad idea. Although, I seem to recall that UAIR thought they had the second coming of Gordon Bethune in Seigel.

I think the Number One thing US Airways needs to change the company culture. The company needs to focus on effieciency and job satisfaction. Right now, US Airways needs to do everything that it can to become more effiecient, period. If that means a rolling hub, fine. If that means changing the way crew scheduling is accomplished (within contracts, of course), then do it. Any tool that can improve effieciency should be acquired, right away... And, an employee suggestion reward system should be enacted... And it should be real... Like $1000 if your idea is implemented. Every job can become more efficient, from rez to airport customer service, to CCY.

Speaking of CCY... It needs to go. While I really have no specific knowledge, the CCY neighborhood looks like a high rent district to me. I would like to see CCY move to PIT to mend fences, and to use as a bargaining chip to reduce costs at the airport. If UAir were to agree to lease a HQ building from ACAA (assuming one is available or could be built) that might allow ACAA to find some creative financing for the airport operations. Second choice would be CLT. Third choice is elsewhere in the DC area... I have to think that cheaper general office facilities are available, maybe out towards IAD or along the beltway somewhere. Lastly, I think the further away the HQ offices get from DC, the less US Airways will act like a federal bureaucracy.

US Airways needs to reduce spoke airport facilities... I think they are working on this, since I recall a discussion here about reduced gates at MCO... but I think there are still glaring problems... Like 5 gates at BUF and only 9 mainline departures...

And while I was looking that up, I noticed that BUF-LGA is mostly Dash-8's? No wonder folks are choosing CO to EWR and JetBlue to JFK... They need to rationalize this right away... send the props to Elmira and Erie and Fayetteville. USAirways is placing itself at a huge competitive disadvantage by tring to fly Dash-8's against JetBlue, and then expecting folks to pay a PREMIUM for a smaller, slower, less comfortable aircraft... Not to mention the joy of walking outside in Buffalo in the winter.

I also liked whoever suggested route structure rationalization with price rationalization... US Airways does not need to serve every public airport in Penneylvania. They should drop service to some of the smallest communities (like Altoona and Franklin, PA), and then offer reasonable fares from PIT and encourage folks to drive to their hub. My guess is that the truly price sensitive folks from these areas are already doing some driving, and the price insensitive passenger is going the way of the do-do bird, especially in very small markets. This would reduce overall costs and increase traffic at the hubs (mostly PIT and CLT)... Obviously, you would keep the subsidized markets (why not?) and small turboprop markets that actually command a premium (Marthas Vineyard comes to mind).

Actually, you would not need to drop service to every small destination. If you drop service to Altoona and Latrobe, PA, folks from those areas could support Johnstown, PA service... Combine Watertown, Massena, and Ogdonsburg, NY into one airport with the expectation that someone will drive to Watertown to catch a flight. And I doubt that Southwest plans to fly to Ogdensburg any time soon... Do Morgantown and Clarksburg, WV really need individual service? They are 36 miles apart according to my atlas.

No offense intended to folks in these smaller communities, but if the flying is not profitable, US Airways should close/consolidate some of these small Express stations. While many of these airports would lose all airline service without US Airways, that may be the economic reality. Furthermore, Southwest has proven over the years a correlation between fare levels at an airport, and the distance people are willing to drive to be able to use tickets at those fare levels.

So, those are a few of my ideas to help out US Airways.

 

[UseYourHead]

Lamar Muse was co-founder and initial president when SWA started in 1971. In 1978, Lamar steps down and Herb fills in as interim president, CEO, and Chairman of BOD. Later that year Howard Putnam is selected president & CEO, Herb remains Chairman. In 1982, Herb became permanent president, CEO, & Chairman. 1994 Morris Air is merged into SWA.

I seem to remember a Muse Air also - could AMR have bought them? Anybody remember?

Muse Air got screwed, they did not get jobs (even at the bottom of the list) at SWA. Morris Air employees were integrated....