Southwest announces initial six PHL routes

Bruce Davis muttered....


Wow!! Major pain for US Airways!! I never would have thought that WN
would have made such an obvious strategic move to cut off US Airways
at their knees from day one. Providence and Chicago I would have
predicted, however, I would have assumed they would leave it at four
cities--perhaps St. Louis and either Houston or Nashville for the
other two. The long range Florida and West Coast routes will be
relatively low yield compared to Chicago and Providence, but the
strategy is interesting.

This is the first acknowledgement by WN that Jet Blue "exists." The
statement that WN is making is that US Airways is all but dead and
they want to pre-empt Jet Blue in cheap long range operations. Jet
Blue is almost invisible in size compared to WN at this time, but they
obviously see the limited success that Jet Blue has had in long range
operations and they want to outdo their tiny competitor. WN's 737-700s
can fly high, fast and cheap--much cheaper than anyone else.

It will be interesting to see how WN's agressive tactics will play out
in PHL.


Interestingly, it's my understanding from comments by a consulting
accountant that WN actually has greater gross profits from some of its
current long distance routes with more modest load factors than from some
of its high load short hauls. PHL/Vegas is a natural, also providing "hub"
service to the West Coast, and PHL/MDW would be time and equipment
competitive. Then there's WN's market experience, the statistics which
have convinced WN that business travelers will "surface" commute from a 100
+ mile radious for dependable consistently priced service to their
destinations. WN's BWI pax are not all Ballmerians or doing bidness
downtown.

Last week, I had to find a substitute trainer for a meeting near RDU on 3
days notice. My best available sub was in Sherman Oaks, CA, convenient to
BUR. WN had 3 alternatives in and two out, all one stops thru PHX, Vegas
or one other city, $299 RT, cheaper and easier than any convenient
alternatives (all of which involved one or more of LA's other area
airports, none as easy access) to come and/or go.

TMO

Could this bring the end of US Airways?

"D.F. Manno" wrote in message
...
In article , Kelly wrote:

"D.F. Manno" wrote:

\They're following Associated Press style. The AP Stylebook says that
"The
norms that influenced the selection [of cities that do not require
state
names] were the population of the city, the population of its
metropolitan region, the frequency of the city¹s appearance in the
news,
the uniqueness of its name, and experience that has shown the name to
be
almost synonymous with the state or nation where it is located."

This is the same "Stylebook" that considers "innocent" to be not only
equal
to "not guilty" but preferred to it.

1) It's been changed in the most recent version of the Stylebook.

2) There was a real reason for it in the days of telegraphy and "hot
type" typesetting. The word "not" was easily dropped in transmission or
during typesetting (or on some occasions changed to "now"), an error
that could lead to a libel suit.
--
D.F. Manno

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

Olivers wrote in message ...

PHL/Vegas is a natural, also providing "hub" service to the West Coast, and
PHL/MDW would be time and equipment competitive.


The LAS service will also help make up for the loss of N7.

My first thought:

I'm confused by the reference to WN. I assume that Southwest's
two-letter code is SW, so who is WN?

My conclusion:

I'm a VERY infrequent flyer, and I've pretty much figured out that WN is
Southwest, but I can't for the life of me figure out why they are WN and
not SW. I guess it's because someone else was SW, or the airline had an
old name that suggested the initials WN.

Bruce Davis wrote:
Wow!! Major pain for US Airways!! I never would have thought that WN would
have made such an obvious strategic move to cut off US Airways at their
knees from day one. Providence and Chicago I would have predicted, however,
I would have assumed they would leave it at four cities--perhaps St. Louis
and either Houston or Nashville for the other two. The long range Florida
and West Coast routes will be relatively low yield compared to Chicago and
Providence, but the strategy is interesting.

This is the first acknowledgement by WN that Jet Blue "exists." The
statement that WN is making is that US Airways is all but dead and they want
to pre-empt Jet Blue in cheap long range operations. Jet Blue is almost
invisible in size compared to WN at this time, but they obviously see the
limited success that Jet Blue has had in long range operations and they want
to outdo their tiny competitor. WN's 737-700s can fly high, fast and
cheap--much cheaper than anyone else.

It will be interesting to see how WN's agressive tactics will play out in
PHL.

--
Please note my correct email address:

rslitman [at-sign] infionline [dot] net

Regina Litman wrote:

My first thought:

I'm confused by the reference to WN. I assume that Southwest's
two-letter code is SW, so who is WN?



My conclusion:

I'm a VERY infrequent flyer, and I've pretty much figured out that WN is
Southwest, but I can't for the life of me figure out why they are WN and
not SW. I guess it's because someone else was SW, or the airline had an
old name that suggested the initials WN.


IATA (International Air Transport Association) uses two letter codes, and the IATA
code for Southwest Airlines is WN. I believe SW is Air Namibia. Reservation
systems uses IATA codes, which is why the general public can become familiar with
them.

ICAO uses three letter codes, SWA is the Southwest Airlines ICAO code. (This is
what would be on the flight plan before the flight number).

Southwest generally operates from airports without delay problems. I've
been watching PHL this fall on http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp and
it seems to have almost as many periods of delay as ORD / ATL / EWR / LGA.

I'd think this would give WN some worries - but maybe they've figured a way
to schedule their aircraft so the PHL delays won't ripple through their
whole system.

R J Carpenter wrote:

Southwest generally operates from airports without delay problems. I've
been watching PHL this fall on http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp and
it seems to have almost as many periods of delay as ORD / ATL / EWR / LGA.

I'd think this would give WN some worries - but maybe they've figured a way
to schedule their aircraft so the PHL delays won't ripple through their
whole system.

Yes, but those delays usually occur during US Airways's big push times, when
more planes are scheduled than the airport/airspace can physically handle. In
addtion, I believe WN will use the old TWA gates at the end of terminal E,
which minimizes taxi time and needing to wait to move to/from gates.

"D.F. Manno" wrote:

In article , Kelly wrote:

"D.F. Manno" wrote:

\They're following Associated Press style. The AP Stylebook says that "The
norms that influenced the selection [of cities that do not require state
names] were the population of the city, the population of its
metropolitan region, the frequency of the city¹s appearance in the news,
the uniqueness of its name, and experience that has shown the name to be
almost synonymous with the state or nation where it is located."

This is the same "Stylebook" that considers "innocent" to be not only equal
to "not guilty" but preferred to it.

1) It's been changed in the most recent version of the Stylebook.

2) There was a real reason for it in the days of telegraphy and "hot
type" typesetting. The word "not" was easily dropped in transmission or
during typesetting (or on some occasions changed to "now"), an error
that could lead to a libel suit.

A big congradulations go out to Associated Press for getting the scoop that the
days of telegraphy are over so that they can update their Stylebook. Perhaps they
can run a story to tell the rest of us that telegraphy is over?

In article , Kelly wrote:

A big congradulations go out to Associated Press for getting the
scoop that the days of telegraphy are over so that they can update
their Stylebook. Perhaps they can run a story to tell the rest of us
that telegraphy is over?

And I suppose there are no outdated/obsolete practices in your company's
policy manual?
--
D.F. Manno

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

"D.F. Manno" wrote:

In article , Kelly wrote:

A big congradulations go out to Associated Press for getting the
scoop that the days of telegraphy are over so that they can update
their Stylebook. Perhaps they can run a story to tell the rest of us
that telegraphy is over?

And I suppose there are no outdated/obsolete practices in your company's
policy manual?

No. And for the record, I don't run a major press organization to figure
these newfangled details like the obsolescence of the telegraph.