Fantastic news! The piece of the international puzzle are coming together. I wonder what's next. :)

This is so exciting! Viva Mejico! Congratulations to your Team. Thank you all for working so hard to take SWA into new frontiers.

Southwest Airlines is a 800 pound gorilla. They should do all the flying to Canada and Mexico themselves. Preservation of their Company's name, solid service and employee relations will increase overall profitability and shareholder value.

this is great news!!! i can't wait to see this happen and book a vacation to mexico!

What is it with Southwest that cannot (for the life of me) offer an international destination with their own planes? Not even Puerto Rico (domestic)?.... People, to make money you have to SPEND money and take some risks!!!! The days of making profits flying from DAL to AMA are gone. Seriously, why everything with Southwest has to be "half-baked"? Is like all that faith they profess for their people is not quite there... They don't think they can pull it off by themselves. So, we are offering service to Canada and Mexico but it will be done by other airlines and don't even think about using Rapid Reward credits for these destinations cuz we are gonna ask you for double points (remember Hawaii with ATA)? I don't get it....

Great news that SWA is expanding it's service to Mexico through its codesharing partnership with Volaris. That is a catchy name for a nice, niche airline that emphasizes fun, customer service and low fares. Hmmm...now who does that sound like? Seems like Southwest has found an ideal partner to take it's loyal customer base to those sought-after destinations in Mexico.

You had me at free Teq......Lol
I think this is wonderful and could not have been announced any sooner. This is great to hear that you guys are going after other airlines to help give your customers an expanded, and that many more reasons to fly the No-Hidden Fee Airline, Southwest!! Luv ya guys!

Joseph R. Meyers

Dallas, Texas

The more I think of this the more I am disgusted that SWA management doesn't have faith in us to pull off flying this with our own metal. Volaris doesn't even fly to the US!!! So they can accomplish the task but we can't.

Let me guess what the company response would be like. Probably will go a little like this:

"Mexico is an interesting case. Mexican passengers appear to heavily favor Mexican air carriers, traveling roundtrip from Mexico to the U.S. For Southwest to be successful on a trans-border city pair, we would have to "win over" a significant share of Mexicans. History suggests, that will be difficult to accomplish. In total, Mexico is a relatively small country, population-wise. If we were growing the fleet, we have better opportunities with much less risk. Of course, we may not be in a position to grow the fleet now, anyway. Once we are, codeshare or not, we may never serve Mexico."

Not feeling the LUV anymore!!

OMG. Shut up (made infamous by Elaine from Seinfeld)! This is the best news EVER! Ever ever! Love you!

JetBlue, Spirit, Airtran: MexiCANS

Southwest: MexiCAN'Ts

I understand the front line employee's worries about international growth coming from codeshares. Not flying WN metal over the boarders reduces risk to the domestic ops. The tweny minute turn will never work for intl destinations due to the paperwork required and such. I used to work for AA. In comparison WN staff have got it easy as far as company relations go. Flying around the world as AA does is not that great when the airline treats you as completely dispossable.

I guess that the implicit message here is that you don't believe that your own pilots and flight attendants (And everybody else) can do the job efficiently.... So you "partially love and trust them, right?

Why not do codesharing for now for international so you can expand on your own into places like NYC,BOS,ATL,CLT,MEM,etc. here in the United States which I think you need to do first and then you can take over the international flying later when you're ready. Let's not put the cart before the horse. Also, many airlines do both codeshare and own metal international flying. Why can't you??? It's better for your customers and I thought that that was goal to begin with.

Warrior Spirit...Really??? I guess Gary needs to rethink the company's mission statement. It would probably be cheaper for you guys to just close up the Dallas base too, and sell tickets on American. All you would need is a computer. In fact why don't you just polish all of the airplanes silver because guess what, you have just become every other failed legacy. Great Job on becoming American Airlines!!!

Why isn't SWA moving the metal in and out of MX & Canada?!? Gary has said there is opportunity for growth within the CONUS. Then why aren't we doing it? We're not. Codeshare is wrong and a produces a negative impact on the Employees, morale and Culture of SWA.

Great to hear Southwest is expanding its codeshare network. Although I haven't flown on Volaris, I trust your guys' judgment in partners. I can't wait to be able to utilize my RapidRewards to fly all over the world.

MIchael Barber — Mon, 11/10/2008 - 11:11

*********

Michael, you must live in a very small world! LOL

____________________________________________

In my opinion, Southwest is sending a bad message with this announcements... We shouldn't expect new cities in the future, instead stay tuned for future code share agreements.....

Just say it: You are never flying overseas. Just say it!

The company has to be sure that it is going to be successful in every market we enter. Given the uncertainty of the industry right now, it's probably a good idea to stick to what we're good at in order to weather these times.

Not to mention, given the current state of the economy, I don't think it's smart for SWA to rapidly expand into unknown territory (international routes). You're correct: It could be very successful, but it also could flop.

You also have to consider that flying internationally opens up a whole new regulatory framework: SWA would be subject to aviation regulations of other countries, as well as ICAO. Having to transition everything could have substantial cost involved.

I'm not saying that international routes would be bad, but I highly doubt that this is the time to be entering such risky markets.

30+ years of the safest operations of any airline in history, and now we are going to turn our hard won customers over to a two year old airline flying into some of the most challenging airports in North America.

I guess the employees that made this company great are too stupid in the company's view to fly south to Mexico or North to Canada.

Herb where are you?

Pissed Off Employee

This is very disturbing news to our frontline employees here at Southwest. This is one step closer to completely outsourcing our jobs. Southwest was on the way to outsourcing our maintenance back in March before that was swept under the rug because of the FAA fines. We work our little tushies off to keep our customers happy. I can't tell you how many times I am yelled at for something out of my control, and all I do is smile, nod, say I'm sorry and offer a free drink... and by the end of the flight the customer is happy and won't ever fly any airline but Southwest again. These code shares will ruin that. Our customers fly Southwest because of us, the employees, and our great customer service. We do not have any control over what kind of service any other airline gives. Also Andrew, by committing to these code shares our company IS treating us and our hard work as completely disposable.

Signed,
Very Concerned

I guess the employees that made this company great are too stupid in the company's view to fly south to Mexico or North to Canada....

****************

Right on! Southwest has more faith in a newly opened airline (and their employees) that doesn't even serve the US yet.... Yep, they must think that you guys are not qualified, smart, civilized or creative enough to pull it of. Kudos to JetBlue, Airtran and Spirit for believing in their employees and making low-cost travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean a profitable reality!

Is this the future of Southwest? Where is the consistent product? Are your pilots too dumb or redneck to fly to Mexico? Are your crews too ignorant? I don't think so. I know they can pull it off. would luv to have low-cost reliable and friendly service to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Too bad that you don't seem to believe in the same people that made your company great!

As a long-time Employee, I think this is good news. Airline codesharing is already benefiting other airlines and their Customers all over the world (with little financial risk to the carriers).
I personally would be more worried about the future of Southwest Airlines if we were sitting on our hands not doing anything at all. The international codeshare plans have been out there for awhile, so forgive me that I’m a little confused by the shock of some to this news.

Gary et al,

From my family and from my heart, thank you for the high paying and secure job we've enjoyed at SWA for the last 9 years. You've met or exceeded every expectation we had for an employer.

I've never run a Billion $ company so any emotional rant I could offer would sound just as intelligent as all the others. But judging by your track record of stable jobs, stable wages, and as stable a profit as is possible in this era, I'm confident this decision is at least as prudent as all your others.

Keep working to make SWA great!

OMG are they going to "codeshare" back to profitabilty? I knew it: US Airways, AA, United, Frontier, Spirit, JetBlue and Continental employees are smarter and more competent that the Southwest ones.... The have been flying our flag to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean for years without outsourcing!

Warrior Spirit?

...to code-share?

This is sooooo wrong at so many levels.... Agree with most of the comments above. You need to trust more in your own people!

You should subcontract every future destination then... Why fly it yourself? Outsourcing is cheaper and less risky... And don't worry about those "whiny" employees... they come and go! Besides, if the want to fly to Mexico, Canada or the caribbean they can work for any other airline in the country. They all (but you) fly there!

So, you really don't think that the people that made your company a success for 37+ years cannot land a plane in Mexico, or have a responsible layover or pass immigration cards to customers?

Thumbs down!

Ok, so far code-share to Canada and Mexico and still looking for co-shares for Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Alaska, The Caribbean and South America (not to mention Europe!). That's 4, 5 or 6 different code-shares! so that doesn't complicate things? What are we becoming? Danger, Will Robinson! Soon our res center will move to India and every new destination will be a code-share.... Depressing! time to go to one of the "other" airlines at least they still fly their own planes to their destinations!!!!!!!!!

Many are concerned about Southwest "outsourcing" our jobs. They also say, "Why doesn't Southwest just fly it???" Ok, where are the extra planes going to come from? Where will our customs areas be? How will you pay for the new terminal rents in another country? Along with whatever issues are involved with flying internationally. OR.... we could just let Volaris pay for it, use their equipment, their customs areas, and use all of their resources which are ALREADY in place and IN USE. And... we get a cut of the profits!!!

Just because an employee wants to vacation somewhere doesn't mean it's a profitable route that must be serviced immediately. Cabo is a great place along with Cancun. But how many business passengers are on those flights? Those are all frequent flyer miles and leisure fares... passengers who save up all year round for this one trip.

Codesharing is a fantastic idea at this point in our economy and state of the company. Or we could end up like ATA, Aloha, etc... I'll take codesharing!

Southwest, what are you thinking? Are you kidding me? Have you now stooped so low as to just become another American brand name that has just outsourced itself to the cheapest bidder? What can we expect next? To talk to outsourced reservation agents "based" in Bangladesh (or the like) like the individuals I got to "converse" with during your ATA codeshare debacle? Wow! Now that was an experience! Not enjoyable to be sure, neither my scheduling/coordinating experience nor the flight segment on ATA! When I book Southwest, I want to fly Southwest!

To the flying public:

This is not what it seems. This is outsourcing of pilot and flight attendant jobs, the same pilots and flight attendants who are so happy to service you our customers. In place of our own growth, and in place of our traditional "go it alone" strategy under your beloved Herb, our new CEO and ex CFO has decided that outsourcing our jobs is the future culture of Southwest Airlines.

This is a perfect example of the victory of theory and numbers over just plane common sense. First the FAA maintenance scandal, then the open labor contracts, now outsourcing. Our culture is under fire and our airline is becoming just another legacy airline.

I'm tired of going the extra mile so these bean counters can destroy our airline. The emperor has no clothes. We miss you Herb.

It’s understandable that some Employees and Customers would have questions as to why we would choose to codeshare rather than fly our own aircraft on international routes. While our current focus is on codeshare service, our leaders has said that flying our own aircraft outside of the United States is not out of the question, it’s simply not our focus at this time and in this economic environment.

Right now, with a weakening economy, unpredictable fuel prices, and slowing Customer demand, the level of investment that would be required for us to fly international routes ourselves simply doesn’t make sense for Southwest Airlines. The idea is to first restore our Company’s profitability to levels that would justify adding the necessary airplanes, flights, destinations, and jobs needed to sustain such growth.

For now, codesharing is a way for us to grow our revenues and profits without taking on the risk of adding expensive aircraft to our fleet. It allows us to fill seats that would otherwise go empty, and it allows us to add destinations that we otherwise might not serve.

As you may recall, we entered into our first codeshare agreement with ATA Airlines in February 2005, and that relationship generated $40 million in additional revenue in 2007. That codeshare agreement was in place until April 3, 2008, when ATA announced its plans to discontinue service. Of course, we were disappointed with the news because we believe the ATA codeshare was a success. For that reason, we began to actively pursue other codeshare opportunities.

On July 8, we announced our first international service by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) with WestJet. WestJet was named Canada's most admired corporate culture in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and we believe WestJet will be a solid match for both our Culture and our level of service.

Today we announced our MOA with Volaris, a Mexico-based carrier. While some of the comments here have questioned the choice, Volaris is known for competitive pricing and has earned the reputation for being Mexico’s most ontime carrier. For those reasons, among others, we believe Volaris is also a great fit for Southwest Airlines.

An important point to remember about codesharing is that it only adds a marginal number of Customers per flight. However, this margin helps us sustain our own flights, especially in this environment of rising fares and declining traffic.

Paula, that was LAME even for Southwest. This is just sad. This company lost its "mojo"...

I love the ones trying to be condescending with their fellow employees and accusing them of being brats "because they cannot non-rev to Mexico". That's very superficial, I believe... and in any case I know that Southwest have very good non-rev agreements with all the airlines that do fly there.... Wake up! This is more than a bunch of brats throwing a tantrum... I have read a lot of legitimate concerns!

Flight crews have been battling the codeshare "creep" (initials GK) for a while now and so far our so called employee friendly CEO has lied to us about his intentions from the days of ATA. Now he's promised the pilots one thing and we read in the media quite another. Gary's post Herb free ride is OVER if you ask me. The man can dress up in whatever cute Halloween costumes he likes, but as of today the fun is over.

Paula,

Traditionally our airline grew in some of its strongest spurts during recession and under our founders direction. Herb grew and managed an airline competently. Gary, Mike and Laura are deal makers. Have you forgotten the life long members of Herbs team who endlessly were shown the door when Gary took over? It was disrespect and it was change through trauma.

This is the airline industry and contrary to what you goes on at the endless Prom Week and Frat Party in Dallas, we're working our tails off out on line and for what. We're stagnant in growth, we have no advancement, our commuters are treated like second class citizens, and now we're watching our gates, our rampers, and our airline utilize lower wage crews to replace us.

If you're really a traditional Southwest type, you'd see this as very un-Southwest. If you or someone else at the GO were to voice similar complaints from your end of the world, I know the flight attendants and pilots would back you. We are a family are we not?

Management has claimed that Southwest employees are the best, and their pilots are the hardest working and most productive pilots in the industry. Their reward? Outsourcing and the impression that Southwest pilots may be capable of flying from L.A. to Providence, but an airline that has been in business for two years have pilots more qualified to fly from Phoenix to Mexico City...

Wake up employees, this affects EVERYONE! Employees built this company, don't let the company give the fruits of your labor to another company and their employees!

And to those who still think Herb was/is the Messiah, call a bookie in Vegas and see what the odds are on him working on this deal before his big farewell and Coleen's final show of "LUV" to the pilots...

And to those customers who think this is just "hunky dory", your ticket purchase to Mexico and anywhere else this leads to, helps the inevitble loss of jobs to Southwest employees.
It's only the beginning folks...If those who truly realize the damage that is done with outsourcing need to book a flight to any of the codeshare cities, I, for one, hope they book their flights on another carrier!

UNITY!!!

I\'m a flight attendant and I\'m concerned. I have a young son and I\'m a single mother. When I first started at Southwest 10 years ago everyone here was so kind and team oriented and those were the days of our triple crown performance. We made record profits, we were highly paid, and we were all on the same team. I trusted Herb and his people.

What I\'m confused about is Gary Kelly. He seemed at first to be a continuation of Herb\'s team but now I\'m not so sure. First when that ATA codeshare came out, we thought it was temporary and they said to trust them. We did. Then came all those flights to Hawaii but this we already had those Midway gates right? Then came WestJet but why can\'t we fly to Canada? Now its Mexico but again why can\'t we go there.

As we grow this way, I still commute. My son sits without his mom a lot. Now we just had a loss which I\'m not sure but I don\'t think we had a loss under Herb did we? What is going on with Southwest Airlines? We seem like American now and Gary I don\'t know who you think you are.

I'm shocked Gary Kelly didn't have something written in SWAlife or a video of why he has decided to embark on more codeshares. If we fly internationally and make X million is it not enough? We have to make XX million more using a substandard airline and throwing our own employees under the bus. We are taking our brand and tossing it in the toilet. We saw that with the ATA codeshare but we didn't learn a thing from it.

PAULA, why don't we just start laying off employees to save a few bucks and connect Volaris with JetBlue and Airtran through our website. We'll collect a small percentage of the profits then we won't have to take any risks at all or incur any costs associated with flying airplanes. We haven't even tested the waters with WestJet and you are already proclaiming it a success. Absolutely amazing!!!

Employee wishing Herb was still at the helm....

Gary,

Please stop all this and post something on SWAlife for us. Clearly the negativity on this forum is outweighing the positives and people are scared. They are the frontline employees who deal directly with the customer and if they aren't informed then we will lose customers in droves. If they are unhappy then the customer will be unhappy. Doesn't matter how many cheerful "desk operators" we have here in Dallas. We aren't the ones who make it all happen.

They, the frontline employees, are clearly scared for their jobs, future advancement possibilities, and most of all scared you are tearing this airline down from all that it was built to be. I don't believe it to be true but we need you now more than ever.

Please, get out and inform those who work hard for you everyday. If there was any time in our history that SWA needed heartfelt leadership it is now. If you truly believe the employees are the heart and soul of this airline and dollar signs aren't as important as they are then please speak out and lead us.

Dear Very Concerned Employee - Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and concerns here on the blog.

I apologize if I was unclear in my previous comment. If you reread it, I think you will find that I did not make any claims of success regarding our not yet active codeshare with WestJet. My claim of success was regarding the relationship and financial benefits of the ATA codeshare.

Of course, I don’t want to see a single Southwest Employee laid off. While we may disagree on the virtues of codeshares, I hope we share the same since interest in our Company’s longevity and solvency.

PAULA,

Why is it so many airlines are successful flying internationally but we have to codeshare our airline out? JetBlue now has a strong presence in the Caribbean and while they aren't making hundreds of millions they are successful. We will be soon announcing another codeshare to the caribbean and Hawaii also. Priceless... While flying to Hawaii has historically been a money loser we easily could make money flying to the caribbean but we won't. We are the only airline who can't make international flying happen. Wait....we can but we won't because codesharing will be able to bolster a few million in our pockets without risking a dime. Well, congrats I guess everyone has their price. Unfortunately the price here is the frontline employees career advancement by job creation. While you are wooping it up at the Friday deck parties drinking the kool-aid we are seeing the culture of our airline erode right before our eyes. Yes the culture is in each of us but that only goes so far because viruses spread fast. Unless you aren't reading the postings on this blog then you can see how fast our airline is about to be compared to AA and United all in the same breath.

The answer to all of this is Gary is a bean counter. If he can make 100 million codesharing then he doesn't care that we could make 5 million doing it on our own. I don't believe he has weighed out the negative effects of codesharing.

Your explanation doesn't hold water.

An annoymous poster states, "To be a (Volaris) pilot as well as a f/a for the airline you have to go through a very very intense hiring process and training."

Really? I was a flight instructor for many years and one of my students went from flying piper aircraft with 300 hours to being a First Officer for a well known Mexican airline. Every SWA pilot is a qualified captain and SWA has the best safety record in the industry. No airline flying 2 years can claim anything. If you aren't a pilot then don't post about pilot hiring or flying. You don't get it no matter how much you think you do.

Regarding the following comment:

PRINT THESE LETTERS! THEY ARE ERASING SOME OF THEM. THE NUMBER OF COMMENTS HAS BEEN DECREASING DURING THE LAST 30 MINUTES!

Anonymous — Tue, 11/11/2008 - 01:47

That is simply not an accurate statement. Not a single comment has been deleted from this strand, nor has there been a single comment that has not been posted.

So let me get this straight. You think you are going to lose job because of a codshare. I think most people should worry about technology taking over your job and not a codeshare. I can not see in any way how this hurts our company. The only thing that can happen is that we make even more money so we do not have to finaly start laying off people. As an ops agent I am way more worried about my departmet going away. Can anyone give a good reason why this is bad? Sorry I just do not see it.

On top of it we held off on the SWAlife news as if it were supposed to be some great news everyone was going to cheer for like opening another city. This is truly the saddest day in my tenure at SWA.

********

Indeed

The idea that Southwest Airlines can't start its own international service because it doesn't have the name recognition, marketing prowess, and international experience of Volaris is a cruel hoax on Southwest employees.

Using Southwest Airlines assets to grow another airline is outsourcing. Southwest's website is every bit as much of an asset as airplanes, and it will now be used to sell tickets for passengers that will not step foot on a Southwest Airplane.

I wonder if it's possible to outsource management to Richard Branson?

If Southwest Airlines can start a code-share agreement to generate a modest amount of revenue, with little to no risk, I say its a great thing! With that said, why is Southwest STILL NOT entering the largest origin and destination market (NYC) in the world? I say open up shop in NYC(LGA has an opp for 14 slots), HNL, SJU and even CLT with the profits this so called code-share with these international carriers will create. TAKE A CHANCE. All of the legacy carriers are expanding internationally including USAirways to TLV who has been bankrupt how many times? Employee morale is down, profits are stagnate. No one wants to change planes and carriers when they can get a nice comfortable non-stop on the jetBlues and the AirTrans of America. Good luck Southwest, what happend to that Warrior Spirit? I think your employees can handle- and would have been willing to accept the challenge. You better do something, and something quick to rekindle an excitment with your employees and your shareholders.

My faith in our leadership is lost. Diluting our hard-earned brand with foreign carriers to fly flights that we could be doing tomorrow is unbelievable. I don't believe in our company anymore.

You are outsourcing our jobs and nearly everyone knows it. If you won't protect my career and career expectations, how can you expect me to go above and beyond and provide POS? Herb has left the building and I'm not impressed with our new direction.

I'm no longer drinking koolaid,
Just a Number

This all started wth ATA - " we just want the gates" - now this.

Instead of a CEO, SWA has a CFO in charge. The real leadership left with Herb.

CODE-SHARE = OUTSOURCING OF USA JOBS !!!!!

I'm shocked at all the employee negativity on this site. While codesharing clearly isn't in the best interest of those who rely on seniority for their careers (me being one of them) we are currently in the worst economic times since the great depression. Unless you live under a rock, you know every major bank is in trouble. All the american car companies are in trouble. If they fail the aftershocks to other companies will cause about 3,000,000 people with lost jobs. The last thing unemployed people and people on a tight budget do is spend money on flying. This codeshare sucks!! BUT I bet if we weren't in such bad economic times we would be flying our own metal. Despite what the Canadian post says we would kick tail in Canada and Mexico.

Gary hasn't led us astray yet but I do hope to hear from him soon because this negativity needs to stop or we will all be on the street looking for jobs.

To All Our Customers Out There:

Who do you trust flying you around the country....Southwest Airlines Pilots and Flight Attendents OR some upstart airline in Mexico with an UNKNOWN record??? Leave the flying to us....we are not dummies. We have the money, resources, AND safety record to do this type of flying and get you to your destinations safely. Our pilots come from all backgrounds. To say that we have NO international experience, is an understatement. We have former astronauts, military members, regional pilots, etc.... With our experience, international flying will not be a problem at all. Think about this....what's going to happen when this upstart airline, with inexperienced pilots, were to have some type of safety incident? Who do you trust, our pilots who've all around the world....even in the most hostile environments, OR some upstart airline who is virtually unknown???

ANOTHER concerned employee

The Southwest Spirit is alive and well. The Southwest family continues to lead the industry in terms of Customer Service, our People, operations, and financial health, all the while truly giving America the Freedom to Fly.

This codeshare with Volaris - along with the previously announced agreement with WestJet, new service to Minneapolis/St. Paul, inflight Wi-Fi,...the list goes on and on - helps to ensure that Southwest is best positioned for any and all growth opportunities that lie ahead.

It's an exciting time for the Southwest Family, for our Customers, and for the those that have yet to have had the opportunity to fly with us. This codeshare, which connects the network of our innovative, intensely Customer-oriented company with that of an innovative, intensely Customer-oriented airline from south of the border, only enhances the future of Southwest Airlines by giving our Customers greater travel options, allowing our Employees the opportunity to win over even more hearts of the travelling public, and cementing Southwest's role as the industry leader.

I'm thrilled with this announcement.

I wonder if it's possible to outsource management to Richard Branson?

******************************************

Brilliant! ....Or code-share management with JetBlue?

MANY other airlines have been codesharing for YEARS! Why does everyone all of a sudden thinks it's a bad thing? ....BECAUSE THEY only know SWA and forget there's a world out there much bigger than where you work!!!!!!

People, remember that by starting out with a codeshare we can see what works and what doesn't before we jump in head first. If a codeshare fails, you stop selling it.... if a new route on WN metal fails you have a WHOLE other mess to clean up. We have employees who can't even tell the difference between a -300 and -700 and you seriously think we're ready to do Intl paperwork and fly Intl......HAHA! It's not as easy as you think.

OPEN YOUR MINDS.... in order to fly Intl a lot here would change and when we've got people who can't even dress appropriately or act accordingly I don't think we have any business leaving the country with that. We're not a regional airline, we're the biggest in the USA and until we realize that and act like it then we have no business going elsewhere. I for one trust that the company is being smart and that these codeshares are a good thing.

Dear traveling public, in the interest of your safety, please ensure you utilize a US based Flag carrier for all your foreign travel needs. American, Continental, Jetblue, etc. You cannot trust your life on a third world country startup. Just read the small print about liabilty on the back of that international boarding card...

Don't think for a moment that you will get the SWA quality of service on this carrier. SWA should be flying and operating these routes themselves.

Why hasn't our leadership displayed the Warrior Spirit that we are always urged to display? Our company has retreated into its peanut shell. Our "Big Announcements" are now announcing growth in other companies, and glee that we can make money from outsourcing via our website. How sad.

People, remember that by starting out with a codeshare we can see what works and what doesn't before we jump in head first. If a codeshare fails, you stop selling it.... if a new route on WN metal fails you have a WHOLE other mess to clean up. We have employees who can't even tell the difference between a -300 and -700 and you seriously think we're ready to do Intl paperwork and fly Intl......HAHA! It's not as easy as you think.

OPEN YOUR MINDS.... in order to fly Intl a lot here would change and when we've got people who can't even dress appropriately or act accordingly I don't think we have any business leaving the country with that. We're not a regional airline, we're the biggest in the USA and until we realize that and act like it then we have no business going elsewhere. I for one trust that the company is being smart and that these codeshares are a good thing.

************

Wow! I bet management shares this view. In a nutshell: Y'all are a bunch of ignorant rednecks not capable of working and international flight.... Although, ok to fly domestically.

This continued outsourcing of Southwest jobs will be the end of Southwest airlines. The morale among line employees is being absolutely destroyed, and with it the good name of Southwest airlines. I am an employee and I'm so disgusted with how this company continually tells its employees they're the best, yet turns around and makes decisions that hurt the employees. I'm afraid GK will be known as the one who destroyed Southwest. Personally, I don't see how Herb can stand by and watch the company he started and worked so hard at for years turn into what it is becoming - just another major airline that abuses its labor. So we can trust the safety of our passengers on a two year old upstart w/ no international experience? And we can't do this ourselves? I for one will be honest with our customers when they express concerns about Volaris.

Unbelievable! Then we wonder what's going on with our stock.... Gary save all that "Is not a matter of if, but when" talk. Really, don't. We don't believe you so just save it. We are not competent enough to fly from Phoenix to Toluca... we get it. Just stop making all this grandiose announcements that never materialize! Please, stop it!

The company has not outsourced ANYONE'S JOB! You have to take a job away from someone to outsource it... and nobody has "lost" their jobs due to codeshares.

"Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider."

We haven't done that. It's a codeshare, everyone has them and we've had them before with ATA and Iceland Air. Stop spreading inaccurate ignorant statements about "outsourcing". Do any of you have ANY idea how huge it is to initiate Intl service? Sure the other carriers are doing it but our operations are NOTHING like theirs. They have varied fleets, sub-fleets and a whole other way of operating. I for one am proud of these codeshares!

To all of you who are confused as to why so many employees thing this is a very bad thing, let me just say this. No one here wants to go to Mexico or Canada just for a "good vacation location" like someone earlier wrote. Most of us could care less were we are going, as long as we are growing. If we were growing as fast as we could, it would be one thing to codeshare, but we aren't. For those of you who work in DAL, just look at the aircraft with the white painted over the tail. Those are airplanes that we are getting rid of while announcing that we are going to us a different company to do flying WE could do. Those airplanes equal JOBS. I know it doesn't seem like your jobs in the GO depend on those airplanes, but they do. This isn't just about pilot and flight attendants. Everybody should be worried. If you work in dispatch, how would you feel if the company said we are going to keep all of you, but all future dispatchers are going to be hired in Mexico into our Mexico dispatch office. (By the way, how did the OPS center work out for you all?) How about we open a Canadian Res center? or an Indian business office? I'm not a huge union guy, but I know a bad thing when I see it, and this is a bad thing. We grow ZERO (GO and all), and we subsidies another company's growth. WAKE UP!

Your customers are not impressed with the way you're acting in this particular blog discussion. Isn't this kind of the High School way to deal with your concerns? Most of you are disregarding what the customers have said which is rude, dumping on your new partner which is rude because they didn't do anything to you, and talking about what a pain it is and how you don't plan to go the extra when your job in particular isn't changing AT ALL and not exactly calling out to customers to fly with you. This is LAME.

***********

Welcome to our LAME world. These are the only venues where we can vent this, because mngmt. doesn't listen and if you dare to question you are not a team player... This company is like Jonestown!

If you are a Southwest Flight Attendant and you are not concern about this check open time (or FA/TT) for tomorrow in OAK, PHX and LAS... Multiply that x 10 and that's your future!

Warrior Spirit on the Shuttle By United from HERB..."Their gonna get nuked!"

Warrior Spirit on flying to Mexico from GARY..."Well I don't know. That's an awful lot of paperwork. Maybe we ought to have someone else do it."

Our customers are always my top priority. I, and all of the employees of Southwest Airlines have absolutely no control of customer experience when that customer has no contact with a Southwest airlines employee.

Our management has decided that it is our best interest to use Southwest's name and reputation (Southwest.com) to sell tickets with an itinerary solely on another airline. Those tickets would be available through the other airline's website, but Southwest has taken it upon itself to use it's own infrastructure to grow another company with cheaper labor while it shrinks it's own flight schedule. If that isn't outsourcing, I don't know what is.

As front-line employees, we live and breathe the "make it happen" attitude everyday when we do quick aircraft turns, help each other when we struggle, and dig in to "git er dun." I hope that as employees we never display the "no I can't" attitude that is so prevalent at other airlines, and now manifests itself in our front office.

>>>For those of you who work in DAL, just look at the aircraft with the white painted over the tail. Those are airplanes that we are getting rid of while announcing that we are going to us a different company to do flying WE could do. Those airplanes equal JOBS.

That's one of several leased -300s SWA are being returned to their lessors. With new -700s arriving, the net fleet growth is flat. All of this has been in response to slowing economy, and has been openly and previously dicussed, and you'll note that there haven't been any layoffs.

If you're going to cite facts, how about doing so in the proper context instead of the disingenuous way that you have?

Gary is treating us like a father promising their kids a trip to Disneyland that will never materialize... Just be honest and say it: Southwest Airlines will never fly international. Never, ever!

Quoting:

We have employees who can't even tell the difference between a -300 and -700 and you seriously think we're ready to do Intl paperwork and fly Intl......HAHA! It's not as easy as you think.

OPEN YOUR MINDS.... in order to fly Intl a lot here would change and when we've got people who can't even dress appropriately or act accordingly I don't think we have any business leaving the country with that.

*************

Are you management? Because I know the share your point of view! Now they are showing their true colors.... I must confess, is not terribly attractive!

Do you think that Gary Kelly read this stuff? Do you think that he is aware of the frustration these news produced? Don't think so. He is in a bubble in Dallas getting hugs and kisses for a job well done. Wake up! Our opinion doesn't matter!

The problem with all of this is no one knows where Gary Kelly is taking our airline. What is the 5-10 year plan. It appears it's just to codeshare and line the company pockets with money at the expense of the employees. I say this because Gary hasn't said a word about what direction he wants to take the company. If it's to codeshare then take over the routes ourselves then we need to know the plan. Right now I'm ready to listen but if there is continued silence then I need not go the extra mile to help anyone.

all the while truly giving America the Freedom to Fly...

*****

To the 62 destinations that we had and will have until the bitter end. If your plans include Mexico or Canada we'll give you the freedom of boarding a foreign carrier that will do what we don't dare to. And that's freedom!

Responding to, "Don't fly code-share flights! fly JetBlue, Frontier, Continental, AA, United, Spirit, Airtran, Delta and all the other American carriers that will take you to Mexico and Canada on THEIR OWN metal and will be held accountable in case something goes wrong!"

Are you kidding me? Do you really think that a Canadian carrier won't be held accountable? Better yet, do you really think that a Canadian carrier won't hold itself accountable? Give your head a shake. Do you know anything about Canada, Canadian standards, Canadian regulations? Here's a crash course: meets or exceeds any US standard. By the way, since clearly there are experts in this blog that have failed to identify this so far: When you fly international you are governed by rules set forth under the Montreal Convention. Canada has signed it, the US has signed it. That means the air carrier under the signatory countries will follow those same rules so long as both countries have signed it. None of the codeshare and transborder flight 'experts' have identified that yet. Also, if you fly United Airlines to Canada, you have a really good chance of actually flying on Air Canada metal. That's called Star Alliance. Again, a simple oversight during the fear mongering...

Further, codeshare does not just take Southwest passengers and funnel them to a Canadian carrier, it goes the other way too--Canadians accustomed to a high level of service that will feel very different once boarding their Southwest flight in the US are going to be coming to you from Westjet. Westjet customers! Treat them well! Reading this blog makes me fearful for them.

It's a good thing Herb didn't have the same level of "insight" that GK has been showing - or SWA WOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT THE STATE OF TEXAS!

BRING BACK HERB.

>>>>And when my family of 4 boards the "LUV" leg of our flight on one of the Canyon Blue birds at LAX or FLL or wherever the link occurs, I trust that the smiling crew that greets us will remember that it was my credit card that paid a few bills that day.

************
That's part of the problem. Gary wants to sell tickets without the "LUV Leg" as you call it on one of our airplanes via Southwest.com. You buy a ticket from LAX to Mexico all on another airline, making Southwest no better that the travel agency at your local mall. But no worry, I don't really need a job I guess, as long as that ticket cost $10 less.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm sorry if this was already mentioned, but if we were to ever dream of flying our own planes over the borders, we would be required by the FAA to have a passenger manifest and assigned seating on that flight. The day we buy used DC10's or add a 2nd lavatory in the back of our 737s is the day we will offer assigned seating. It ain't gonna happen kids so give it up.

I've come to the realization that I will never work an international flight of any kind at Southwest and I'm over hoping for it. But, I'd rather work 100% domestic flights with a bit of job security than wake up on a layover in Paris wondering if my airline is going to still be around.

John,

I'm not sure if you saw it, but we're already taking losses. Last quarter was our first in 19 years.

And don't forget we've endured other fireworks too: We had a record FAA fine levied against us for lack of basic maintenance oversight by the finance guy now running flight operations. We've witnessed numerous operational meltdowns out on line due to poor staffing during our heaviest holiday travel periods. We now have all major labor contracts now open at the same time. We're losing our shirts right now as a company thanks to a bunch of crazy hedging contracts which were signed this summer at the peak of the energy cycle. And we're selling and deferring aircraft deliveries from Boeing. Remember those Fort airplanes? How much did we pay to buy, overhaul, and significantly modify them only to turn them back for sale only months later.

I mean how hard can this be? As managers, you get handed over the reigns to the most profitable, stable, and debt free airline in the history of the United States and within a matter of just a few years all heck seems to break loose every time the employees turn around.

Take your head out of the sand, and look around you. This is not a union vs. management thing. This is just incompetent management holed up in a bunker called Dallas.

ONCE YOU LOOSE THE UNIONIZED LABOR GROUPS, YOU WILL NEVER GET THEM BACK : (

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm sorry if this was already mentioned, but if we were to ever dream of flying our own planes over the borders, we would be required by the FAA to have a passenger manifest and assigned seating on that flight. The day we buy used DC10's or add a 2nd lavatory in the back of our 737s is the day we will offer assigned seating. It ain't gonna happen kids so give it up.

**********

Agree! Is a cultural thing, folks. We don't know how to do it!
My advise: If you really want to fly internationally quit Southwest TODAY. Work for JetBlue or Continental, they are great companies too. It ain't gonna happen. Get Over! Again: No matter what Gary Kelly says in the Message to the Field, HE IS LYING. (to appease you and Wall Street) one more time: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES WILL NEVER FLY INTERNATIONAL. NE-VER, NUNCA, JAMAIS!

PS: They also have TV's and assigned seating!

This sucks but is not a surprise at all. Just another big "SHUT UP!" to all the pilots that start the day with a grin and the "latest scoop": e.g. -We are opening CUN next year, Gary told me or -My brother called me saying that we are putting signs in SJU!... pleeeease, this is a good wake-up call, stop spreading stupid rumors! They don't trust us in Mexico or Puerto Rico! He he

>>>So because they are leased they must not provided a job for you in the GO

Has nothing to do with it.

*********
Surprise how did I know that you work in the GO. Yes I understand that we are not retiring THOSE particular aircraft because of THIS particular codeshare, and I realize that nobody is being directly laid off. The apples to apples comparison that you cannot seem to understand while we are growing ZERO which equals about 80 jobs per aircraft (including GO jobs) we choose to use a competitor to grow our route structure (zero GO jobs). I could care less if we ever fly to Canada or Mexico. What I do care about is increasing our presence with our aircraft, and crews. All I hear is that there are so many places that we could fly to here in the US...OK let's do it. How is zero growth while allowing other companies to do fly that we could EASILY do accomplishing that. If not there then where?

What this is is a simple cost effective way to give our future coworkers jobs away to someone who will do it for much cheaper. You are fooling yourself if you think that those jobs are ever going to come back. I have not called you any names, but I think that you need to get out into the real world of this industry that we work in, and give me one good example of an airline that this has been a good things for the employees. That is the real REALITY.

As a shareholder, I'm dismayed that LUV would be content with no or negative growth only to expand the operations of a competitor. Furthermore, as an investor in general, it's sad to see the newly growing competitor to Southwest doesn't even fly Made-in-the-USA aircraft. When the rest of my capital returns to the Market, I'll keep these data points in mind.

Wonder if Volaris hires US citizens... Mmmmm. I should go to work for them and fly International. How exciting!!!! Volaris hire me! I'm a good Flight Attendant! I can work an international flight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My company is planning to put its passengers on a foreign carrier with TWO years experience as an airline!!?? YIKES!!!
What will Southwest's exposure be if this start-up airline has an incident? Can they have a substantial track record after only two years? How is their maintenance? Are their crews qualified? I would be very, very, very leery of buying a ticket on a foreign, start-up airline--much less linking my future to them.
Too bad we apparently can't figure out how to grow our company into these destinations ourselves!

"I'm not sure if you saw it, but we're already taking losses. Last quarter was our first in 19 years"
False. Our profit was 69 million. There will be profitsharing on this. This "loss" was paper only and related to the devaluation of the hedges.
"Remember those Fort airplanes? How much did we pay to buy, overhaul, and significantly modify them only to turn them back for sale only months later. "
False. The ford airplanes are still in the fleet. 270 and 271 have been reconfigured and 550 and 551 will be done later.
"We're losing our shirts right now as a company thanks to a bunch of crazy hedging contracts which were signed this summer at the peak of the energy cycle. "
False again
look at the 10q report for the facts on the hedging values. You have our contracts confused with someone elses.

If you guys think I'm going to trust my family's lives to a Mexican airline that has been flying for all of two years than you really are NUTS!

Not one GO employee will suffer a paycut that EVERY Flight Attendant and Pilot will take as SWA slows growth, and cuts capacity. This is the difference, the frontline employee taking it in the shorts so the folks in the GO can continue having spirit parties. Thats why parking jets is a bad idea.

I am overwhelmingly concerned. I'd hoped to be at SWA for 25 + years, but it's starting to look like it (SWA) won't be around for that long. This is the beginning of the destruction of "that legendary Southwest culture" and potentially the entire company. I have no faith in this decision because it's the wrong one, but I do have faith that someone can turn this around! Let US go to Mexico! Let US go to Canada! If those companies can grow 15%+ a year on our backs I think we can take advantage of the same situation and do the job ourselves much better, especially to Mex and Can. Obviously there is opportunity there! I hope we can get together and realize WE ARE the best, most efficient, and most profitable airline out there and WE should be taking care of business, instead of farming out our name and product and guaranteing 'positively outrageous service' on a start-up Mexican airline that's 2 years old with no track record on aviation safety, service, or business.
Let's actually get back to what Southwest Airlines does best!!!

From what it looks like, they have a very nice product with (what a concept) professional looking flight attendant uniforms and flip down video screens...and most likely, assigned seating. At least we chose to team up with what looks to be a nice carrier. Copy and paste this link and scroll down for cabin photos:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/...

Somebody should send a transcript of this blog to Wall Street and the press, so they know how we really feel about this crap!

Quote
"Volaris looks "High class" compared to Southwest"

And your point is?
So does Jet Blue, American, Delta, United, etc. Must be because of all the profits they made the last few years. Oh wait, they haven't made money in years...

My bad

Bottom line here is that no airline employee wants to see another airline struggle or employees lose their jobs, the issue at hand is the outsourcing of travel to another airline
when Southwest employees are more than capable of doing the job. Seniority has already stagnated due to zero growth which has turned short term quality of life issues into long term quality of life issues for pilots and flight attendants.

FOFL
First Officer For Life

Well, I'm the optimist of the bunch. Let's start a group and come up with creative and cost efficient solutions to this dilemma and offer it to Gary. If we put our hearts and minds into this we can be teaching Airtran, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit and even Ryanair how to work and deliver an awesome low-cost international product within a year! Let's do it!

Those of you with the "testing the waters" theory make me chuckle. Do you really think that Southwest Airlines (specially Kelly) after seeing how he can turn a quick profit (with so little risk and effort) is going to enter those markets with our metal? Y'all are on crack! This is the end of "Southwest, the real airline" and the beginning of the "Virtual Southwest". It has been discussed even in the WSJ the "doing more with less" doctrine is here to stay. You are now working for a travel agency... get used to it!

The saddest part of this tragedy is that the great mayority of our employees are soooooo brainwashed they believe every word management utters. They are clueless, just repeating the slogans they heard in the msg to the field like parrots! They are CONVINCED that these code-share outsourcing is the best thing ever!

This is a sad, sad day.

The time is coming, this company will burn down to the ground because of the greed for green. I will not stand to see my occupation outsourced to the lowest bidder. Gary Kelly and his puppets in mgt may get their millions but "failure to communicate" will be there reputation.

Wow, I am amazed at all the negative comments about the codeshare. This is really shocking that employees are just up in arms about this and are slinging mud left and right. All i can say is wow. Your company needs to get it together...stop bickering, come to the table, work out the differences. I want to continue flying your great airline...these squabbles makes me start to think that you're going the wAAy of American Airlines with their sour management-labor relations.

I can't believe we are going to fly our customers to some gateway like Phoenix, sell them a ticket, and put them on some third world startup airline and send them on their merry way. Herb, are you watching this? You are still a board member aren't you? Save us from this guy!

I dont understand why Southwest Airline can not fly to Mexico using its own aircraft. Airtran, Jetblue, Spirit, Frontier, and Alaska fly to Mexico and Airtran, Jetblue, Spirit, fly to the Caribbean and do it very well under it own brand. I am sure it was a big risk to them too but they did it. Also how about more business center like ATL, CLT, BOS, NYC, RIC, MKE, to cater to more business select Customers to gain more revenue that would be a nice plus. Just my two cents.

And you guys didn't know this was going on? Why everybody is so surprised all of the sudden?

Yes, Oliver, that's what we're worried about too! You see, we have a new CEO that is more worried about the bottom line than about his employees. That is something previously unknown at Southwest.

I don't understand why Southwest Airlines can not fly to Mexico using it own aircraft. Airtran, Jetblue, Spirit, Frontier and Alaska plus all legacy carriers all fly to Mexico using its own brand and do it very well. Also Airtran, Spirit, Jetblue fly to the Caribbean using its own AIrcraft and flt crews and they keep adding to their caribbean and mexcian destinations while Southwest just sits back and wants to just do a codeshare. I am sure it was a big risk for them but they did it. and thier growing thier caribbean and mexico destinations. Also how about more business center like ATL, CLT, NYC, BOS, MEM, MKE, RIC, to cater to more business select flyers and generate more business flyer revenues for Southwest.

This is truly a sad day in my professional career. Reading all these posts along with the hundreds of posts on the SWAPA website has made it abundantly clear this is the beginning of the end of Southwest Airlines. Every company has a select few complainers but there have been vocal angry pilots who have never said a peep about anything for years and years.

I don't know the answers to codeshare. If it's possible for SWA to make a profit or not but I am sure the culture of this airline is dying. I've never seen so much anger and discontent before. I always thought getting to SWA meant job security but I'm going to start polishing up my resume. Not because codesharing puts another airline in the mix but because this codesharing business is destroying employees perception of what SWA means.

Whomever reads this for the executives really needs to step up and show Gary and Colleen these posts.

This is terrible...

While I wish Southwest could fly to these great destinations with thier own aircraft and flt crews. I do know Southwest has been good to its employees. where you do not have to worry about layoffs and paycuts like some of the other airlines. Hopifully one day Southwest will fly these routes themselfs once they get established on the codeshare routes and see that they can make money on them. Maybe they are testing the waters first. I do think the codeshare is better than nothing. The only thing I worry about is the other LCC getting a foot hold on the routes first before SWA can do it them selfs. just my two cents.

I too am a concerned employee. When the announcement was first made, I naturally was concerned about my future with regards to quality of life, pay, and upgrade time. After reading this blog, I'm more concerned about the culture of Southwest being flushed down the drain. It seems that management has failed to consider the effects of marginalizing their front line employees. I sure hope someone in management is paying attention to this because if we lose the goodwill of the internal customer, the external customer's will soon follow. The only thing that keeps the public coming back is a cheap ticket, efficient operations, and our hospitality. To sacrifice this winning formula for codeshare revenue seems foolish. I may not know how to run an airline but I believe there are plenty examples on how not to. Let's not head down that road.

I wonder if the CEO at Volaris is a University of Texas Grad. Doesn't seem like you have to be qualified anymore to run things at SWA, just need to be a UT grad. Move your cars folks, we need some more parking on the South side of the GO for reserved parking for the new V.P's.

Sell your stock now. The ship is sinking under the weight of the Peter Principle.

For the people who are saying that Southwest should fly their own metal to Canada and Mexico. You are NUTS!!! With the economy in the dumps right now. It would be a BIG mistake to try this right now. I'm no CEO or anything close but, I have worked in retail my entire life. In the 90's I used to work at a Midwest retailer called Venture stores Inc. We had approx 100 in 7 states with the majority in MO, IN, and IL. The company tried to expand well past their operating capacity. They went full steam into Texas with approx 25 new stores in 2 years. The following is copied from Wikipedia.

By the late 1990s, the chain found that it was unable to compete against other retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Venture tried to return to its founding principles as an upscale discounter and remodeled most of its 90+ stores. While facing vast competition Venture made a fatal mistake trying to expand into Texas instead of protecting its core markets. Venture sold the Texas stores to Kmart in 1996 and closed its distribution center in Corsicana, Texas. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 20, 1998, and tried to operate with a smaller number of stores. The effort was not successful, and the company announced its closing on April 27, 1998. Most of the former Venture buildings were absorbed into other chains, such as Kmart, Kohl's, ShopKo, and Burlington Coat Factory.

Now with that said. Does any employee want to over expand and end up in financial trouble?
Lets just say SWA did fly their own metal into these two countries and failed. In order to not layoff any employees (even after 9/11 they NEVER laid off a single employee) they decided to eliminate the FREE airfare and instead charge $25 for a round trip flight. How would you feel then???? And to the others that are blaming Gary Keller on the drop in the LUV stock. That is completely outrageous. EVERY stock is down right now. The last thing you would want to do right now is to sell your stock because you already absorbed the loss and when the stock climbs back up you'll be out of luck. Get your heads out of the toilet and realize that this is the best way to test the market with little consequence if it doesn't work.

Volaris is a great airline, I flew them a few times in Mexico. Brand new airplanes and a great attitude of the staff - many (Not southwest) mainline US airlines could learn from these guys' service!

Southworst Airlines are the worst airlines that don't offer services on THEIR planes to Canada, Caribbean, and Hawaii!!!

For those who don't understand why the pilots would be so upset... keep in mind we are operating under a contract signed in 1994. That contract and all of it's extensions became amendable - ended - in August 2006. Since that point, the pilots have been under what is essentially a pay freeze. Now (for the first time) the company has essentially eliminated all growth and prospects for advancement in seniority. Couple that with contracting these outside carriers who are projecting growth rates of 25-50% while carrying "Southwest" passengers.

While the company is having no problems throwing parties at the GO and promoting VP's, those who are out there serving the customers day in and day out seem to have lost the respect of the GO staff.

It really is just another job after all.

Many of you who post these negative comments must have forgotten about the ATA codeshare and what Southwest did after ATA went under. How about our flights to Florida that we found profitable AFTER we codeshared with ATA. Now we're into West Palm Beach making that profit ourselves. Trust management and let's just test those waters to see where they take us. Codesharing is a far more reasonable option in these turbulent times!

Flight Attendant here and some points should be made. I think a lot of this posting is being done by a few people as someone said. But I can tell you that these views are radical from our flight crews. Especially the pilots I hear this mentioned a lot. I think its more of an issue for the pilots but that seems to be changing. I do not think the pilots will step down. I've never seen them this angry or heard them talk about slowdowns, etc. before yesterday. But I think this blog is pathetic.

The posted a very small blip about codeshare this morning but it doesn't even reference employee concerns. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead Gary? - HOU F/A

We went to West Palm Beach before the ATA codeshare, get your facts straight. Never trust management when they are going after your career. SWA is not in trouble and turbulent times are when we are at our best. This is the time to take over some other destinations with our own employees. Enough is enough, Gary has driven the knife into his employees hearts. Too sad.

Southwest is in trouble! Why can a 2 year old unproven Mexican startup do what SWA is afrid to do??
Isn't Southwest supposed to be a leader and an innovator? Outsourcing potentially lucrative flying is a joke! When I buy a ticket on Southwest to the US, Canada, or Mexico, I want to FLY ON SOUTHWEST!

Paula, Brian and the Blog team,

WoW... I'm impressed by you guys and girls! managing the blog over the last day must've been mayhem! :o|

To all the posters, do bear in mind that the Blog is moderated for unsuitable language, outside of that, I've never seen any negative comment not allowed though in the last two years, so there is no doubt as to the integrity of what the blog team is doing, they're letting all comments (aside from downright abusive and inappropriate!) through!

If your comment doesn't go through immediately, it is because the team have to give it the once over to ensure it is not grossly inappropriate... imagine how much work that's been! (AND the team also has other jobs to do at the same time... WoW! I guess that's multitasking for you!)

Ref the SWA codeshare with Volaris, I have to say that:
a) I'm initially rather happy to see that SWA will be able to offer flights to Mexico, even in a codeshare
b) I'm surprised at the number of concerned posts by SWA employees

I guess there isn't quite enough information out there to really make my mind up, although it seems logical today to consider a codeshare with a Mexican operator that can provide a large number of destinations and routings that interconnect with the SWA network, much like the WestJet partnership.

I will follow what comes out closely over the next few days before deciding wether there's any reason to feel cautious or concerned about this news!
:o)

Raphael

I think Gary is doing a great job, and I have a lot of faith in his leadership. With the crazy circumstances of the last decade, name another carrier that has weathered this storm as well? So many comments have been critical of our leadership, but I fail to see where they have steered us so wrong. As for flying our own metal and crews on international routes or not “trusting our own Employees” – no one is saying we can’t or won’t some day, only that this is the most prudent route at this juncture. And things change. If there's anything we know about this business it's that things change. Yes, other airlines are doing it, but how profitably? My guess is that one of the reasons they are doing it is because they can’t compete with us on more domestic routes. If you’re so envious of their position, perhaps you should go work for them. Oh, wait, they’re not hiring. Honestly, you all sound like ignorant, insolent brats. I am very thankful that it’s Gary Kelly running this company, and not some of you.

Quote...
OMG, I AM SOOO FREAKING OUT OVER THIS!! I am SOOO mad at you pilots. What is wrong with you? We're going to Mexico!! And if you ask me, its about time Gary took on some of the unions at Southwest. It is SOOO out of control with you guys. You DO NOT own this airline. You're just a little employee just like me. Because the unions make SO much money there's nothing left for us here in Dallas and we DO work hard. So pooh on you guys. And as far as dissing on our young Mexican friends and their pilots well news flash from Reggie, your job isn't all that hard. How do I know? Because I just got a PPL this summer and passed my written exam with a 96%, whoo hoo!!! And I'm not alone, some of my friends here got there's too and we all agree you have a fun job but it isn't really so hard. So boo, hoo, hoo. Cry me a river, I'm going to Mexico cry babies and I'm standing behind my man Gary!! Go Gary and viva la Mexico!!!! Whooo, hooooo!!!!!!!!

You might want to apply at Volaris as a pilot with that 96%, and I'd cut back on being a spokesperson for the GO, you're not doing them any favors.

Quoting "Reggie":
I'm going to Mexico cry babies and I'm standing behind my man Gary!! Go Gary and viva la Mexico!!!! Whooo, hooooo!!!!!!!!

********

You know what, you are NOT going to Mexico. Volaris is. You are not. You are not. You are not....

PS: I'm not a pilot and I hate it too!

Hey Reggie,
You're right...... flying a cessna 152 in the pretty sunshine is exactly like flying a boeing 737 in the sleet and snow.... that's why we just hire any clown with a pilot's license right off the street!! Why don't you post again when you meet the MINIMUM requirements to apply as a pilot at SWA.... I expect to hear back from you in about 7-10 years

Judas Iscariot sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Southwest management upped the ante when they sold out the Southwest Airlines brand name for 39 routes south of the border.

First of all if we were doing what wew are supposed to be doing, get bags from point A to point B baggage, and answering our calls in Customer friendly way, Maybe the Company would give us more to do, but if we can't handle what we have and do a good job at it, Why bother giving us more??? I mean come on. We need to step up to the plate and stop saying "What's in it for me" and take care of the company that is trying to take care of us. If we all came in and did our jobs that way we should be doing them, then i think we wouls be better off and ready to take on more. Just sayin!

Quote:
"If we want to have a true code share lets actually code share mutually, where we go to Mexico from some destinations using Volaris gates in Mexico, and they come to some of our destinations. That is a code share, this is just out-sourcing jobs."
Anonymous — Wed, 11/12/2008 - 12:38

* * *

Hallelujah! This summarizes everything. Agree with every word. Frame it! That's a REAL code share... BOTH AIRLINES doing the flying. The rest is OUTSOURCING. Wake up!!!!!

Reggie,
Step away from the Kool-aid vat. First, congratulations on passing your PPL exam by 96%. You're well on your way. Now get back to me when you have about 12 years of professional or military experience under your belt. That's the AVERAGE for the SWA pilot new hire. Don't forget to buy your own type rating. And that when you do upgrade to a captain spot you get to put your career on the line in front of a FAA designated medical examiner every six months AND you get to take a check ride once a year. Go sit in on a couple of sim sessions to see how much fun it is.

My biggest concern is the dilution of our brand. I think Mr. Kelly is making big mistake. Bigger than the one he made with ATA. He's destroying the great relationship he has with the employee group that brought him to the prom.

This is really great news! I'm sorry to see that so many are raining on the parade. It's pretty naive of the people on here to keep making these same flawed points over and over again despite refutations which you seem to simply ignore if they carry any real weight. The airline is NOT shrinking(you haven't dropped any cities), you added Denver last year and Minneapolis is coming in the spring so you ARE still growing, you're jobs as they stand right now won't get smaller because of this codeshare because they aren't taking over any US routes you already fly(if anything they'll get busier because you'll be helping incoming passengers transfer and dealing with increased passenger loads), the airline is the only one that has successfully weathered the economic crisis and this will bring in more money at the risk of none(yea...you can be like the others but their service STINKS, they're LOSING MONEY, and their employees are MORE WORRIED THAN YOU and MISERABLE), this will actually give you guys an advantage over other US carriers because suddenly you'll serve more international destinations than Airtran, Jetblue, and Frontier put together, and lastly you're demeanor on here makes me not want to fly with you if that's kind of attitude that you're going to start having. Oh and while I'm at it....your opinion was clear the first time so you don't have to post it an extra 260 something times because I don't know if you've noticed but it doesn't seem producing any kind of a positive effect for you.

Brand dilution and job outsourcing all in one. This is the new Southwest. Our reputation is being sold off to a 2-year old Mexican startup airline. Hey, they can do it cheap so it must be good. Best of luck to our passengers who buy their tickets on southwest.com who think we fly them all the way to Mexico. Their safety is no longer in our hands.

I flew on Volaris in August with my family.

Shortly after takeoff there was screaming coming from the galley. Several passengers jumped up to find out what the comotion was all about. Much to my disgust there appeared almost 150 cockroaches scurrying about the aft galley.

In all my years slying SWA I've never seen a cockroach much less a dirty cabin. So Mr. Gary Kelly enjoy outsourcing your strong culture to an upstart that flies invested Airbus's. This is a hit below the belt not only for your people but also your passengers.

Sincerely,

No more LUV

It is not surprising that we are now #10 in baggage handling because a few years ago the bean counters, pencil pushers and whiz kids decided that SWA needed to be "Redefined" and set out to reinvent the wheel and create a bunch of unncessary jobs in DAL HDQ. This whole project was run by outside business consultants because, I guess, being number one in everything wasn't good enough.

Front line Employees are doing the very best we can, but we don't have any control over the changes that are ruining our beloved airline. Just talk to any Ground Ops Employee and you'll understand the discouragement. We want to be number one in everything and take care of our Customers, but our Stations are now micro-managed by HDQ,

It is sad and I just hope that someone wakes up before we end up like the other airlines. Please don't blame us--we are the ones taking care of our Customers and we still care.

Be the judge...

CODE SHARING:
Code sharing is a business term which was first originated in the airline industry in 1990 when the Australian airline, Qantas Airways and the U.S.'s American Airlines combined services between an array of U.S. domestic cities and Australian cities. The code share was part of a "cooperative services" agreement between the two carriers before the various airline alliances were formed. It refers to a practice where a flight operated by an airline is jointly marketed as a flight for one or more other airlines. Most major airlines today have code sharing partnerships with other airlines, and code sharing is a key feature of the major airline alliances.
The term "code" refers to the identifier used in flight schedule, generally the 2-character IATA airline designator code and flight number. Thus, XX123, flight 123 operated by the airline XX, might also be sold by airline YY as YY456 and by ZZ as ZZ9876.
Under a code sharing agreement participating airlines can present a common flight number for several reasons, including:
Connecting flights - This provides clearer routing for the customer, allowing a customer to book travel from point A to C through point B under one carrier's code, instead of a customer booking from point A to B under one code, and from point B to C under another code. This is not only a superficial addition as cooperating airlines also strive to synchronize their schedules and coordinate luggage handling, which makes transfers between connecting flights less time-consuming.
Flights from both airlines that fly the same route - This provides an apparent increase in the frequency of service on the route by one airline
Perceived service to unserved markets - This provides a method for carriers who do not operate their own aircraft on a given route to gain exposure in the market through display of their flight numbers.
Under a code sharing agreement, the airline that actually operates the flight (the one providing the plane, the crew and the ground handling services) is called the operating carrier. The company or companies that sell tickets for that flight but do not actually operate it are called marketing carriers or validating carriers.

time to bring this horse to the soap factory, she is getting old and her manager is getting greedy. Let's save the farm and get rid of the manager.

Quote:

This is really great news! I'm sorry to see that so many are raining on the parade. It's pretty naive of the people on here to keep making these same flawed points over and over again despite refutations which you seem to simply ignore if they carry any real weight. The airline is NOT shrinking(you haven't dropped any cities), you added Denver last year and Minneapolis is coming in the spring so you ARE still growing, you're jobs as they stand right now won't get smaller because of this codeshare because they aren't taking over any US routes you already fly(if anything they'll get busier because you'll be helping incoming passengers transfer and dealing with increased passenger loads), the airline is the only one that has successfully weathered the economic crisis and this will bring in more money at the risk of none(yea...you can be like the others but their service STINKS, they're LOSING MONEY, and their employees are MORE WORRIED THAN YOU and MISERABLE), this will actually give you guys an advantage over other US carriers because suddenly you'll serve more international destinations than Airtran, Jetblue, and Frontier put together, and lastly you're demeanor on here makes me not want to fly with you if that's kind of attitude that you're going to start having. Oh and while I'm at it....your opinion was clear the first time so you don't have to post it an extra 260 something times because I don't know if you've noticed but it doesn't seem producing any kind of a positive effect for you.
Anonymous — Wed, 11/12/2008 - 15:31

***************************

Yes, sure you are a customer. Not management at all... wink, wink! ;)
By the way I haven't seen a valid refutation to the "no more code shares" case.
LUV STOCK: Almost 8 bucks an hour ago!

About five years ago, management got us all excited about going outside of the border- Hawaii, Mexico, Canada were mentioned! We fed on the anticipation of something new and exciting. Morale was high which led to a highly productive workforce. Two years ago, an impending huge historic announcement was released from Dallas. Everyone thought, at last, we're going to Hawaii or Puerto Rico. When the "historic day" came, "New gates & boarding process!!!" was the earth shattering news. As the air slowly leaked out of the balloons, everyone walked around scratching their heads...."This is it? You've gotta be kidding!"

At one time, we thrived on being part of a company that took chances and truly trusted their employees to follow through on the risks. Now we watch with dismay and disappointment as our jobs and dreams are farmed out to a foreign airline with no record or reputation of the "positively outrageous service" that's expected of us. I kind of feel like the kid that was promised a brand new bike for Christmas, only to find out that the new kid across the street got it instead. Oh well, four flights a day between Minneapolis and Chicago is a nice stocking stuffer.

>>>Our stock hit the single digit mark today. 9 bucks. Keep announcing code-shares!

More disingenous information, as if the $9 LUV price was a direct result of the codeshare news. It's funny, but the AP story I'm looking at opens with:

"NEW YORK – A disheartened Wall Street fell for the third straight session Wednesday as investors absorbed another series of dismal corporate reports **and news that the government won't buy banks' soured mortgage assets after all.**" [My **]

As I said earlier, I fully understand the frustration that the pilot contract negotiations have run 2 years, and also that your 401K and PS accounts have taken hits (Our have too, you know), and that the pilot group feels the need to do "something" rather than sit idly by and watch flat 2009 growth. Did it ever occur to anyone that another reason (unmentioned by SWA) for the codeshare might be to retain operational flexibility on the domestic side should, say the new DL/NW combo decide to close or drawdown hubs at MEM or CVG, ala' the way USAirways gutted PIT? Maybe another carrier shutting down? Have any of the armchair CEOs here considered these (or other) possibilities?

As many of you may know, Circuit City recently announced the closure of 100+ stores, and a couple of days later filed for Chapter 11 bancruptcy. Meanwhile, their arch rival Best Buy continues to do well. The Consumerist.com got a copy of an email from Best Buy's head dudes to all their employees, and although it's a different industry, there are obvious lessons here that are just as applicable to SWA. Circuit City made some bonehead moves over the years, while Best Buy didn't. I think everyone can agree that SWA management has made similar good moves that have kept us out of the situations that most airlines find themselves in. What SWA folks need to be doing (ALL of us) is focusing on the Customer, instead of this "The Sky Is Falling" and "SWA is doomed" crap, and let management do their jobs while each employee does theirs (and nobody else's).

The Best Buy memo:

Best Buy says:
A Message from Brad Anderson, Brian Dunn and Bob Willett

To all employees:

This morning, we announced that we've seen a sudden change in consumer spending, in our comparable store sales, and in our expectations for this year's earnings. We'd like to provide more context around these changes and their impact on our business.

The year started off well, with total company comparable store sales (sales at stores open more than 14 months) growing 4 percent for the first half of our fiscal year, a period that runs March through August. Our results were fairly consistent until September, when our comparable store sales turned negative, declining by 1 percent. Then our comparable store sales softened further in October, declining by nearly 8 percent, amid unprecedented changes in the financial markets, a deteriorating economy and weakening consumer sentiment. From where we stand today, we could see total company comparable store sales for the rest of the fiscal year decline by 5 percent to 15 percent.

Revenue gains are important to our business model because the majority of our costs ─ such as rent and store operating costs ─ are fixed. Typically, when comparable store sales increase by 3 percent or better, revenue growth outstrips expense growth (including merit increases, rising health care costs and the like), and our earnings rise. Currently, due to comparable store sales declines as well as spending increases, we have expenses rising faster than revenue. That's why we're now anticipating an earnings decrease for the year.
Specifically, today we also announced a new range for our earnings expectations: $2.30 to $2.90 per diluted share. The midpoint of our range is a 17-percent earnings decline compared with the $3.12 per share we earned last fiscal year.

Let us be very clear. These reduced earnings expectations reflect the unprecedented tumult in the financial services industry, which has reduced consumer spending across the board in retail. The outstanding work of our 165,000 employees doesn't make us immune to our environment. We can't change the overall level of consumer spending, but we can focus on deepening our relationships with customers wherever we interact with them: in our stores, on our Web sites and through our call centers.

While our comps have been negative, we gained market share in September and October. So we're getting a bigger piece of a business that is currently shrinking. Customer satisfaction remains at all-time highs. Employee turnover is at historic lows. We firmly believe that our strategy of customer centricity is of great value in driving our performance versus the industry, and that's the strategy we plan to pursue to continue to strengthen our position in the marketplace.

We must find ways to win with the customers who are coming to us today. Serving our customers better than anyone else is the best way to create value for customers, employees and shareholders alike. We need every employee engaged in serving customers better, and more efficiently. We want your unique perspective on what we should do differently in this market, based on what you see and touch, and using the talents you have.

**We could let today's turmoil distract us from serving customers. Other retailers might do that. But we will not. Instead, we will use these circumstances to redouble our efforts and deepen our commitment to each other, to our company, to our strategy and to the customers we serve. In so doing, we will strengthen and fortify ourselves as a team. A winning team. That's who we are, and that's Best Buy.**

Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive officer
Brian Dunn, president and chief operating officer
Bob Willett, chief executive officer of International and chief information officer

Geez Gary, you're gonna code share me right out of a job aren't ya!?!

As a Southwest flight attendant I feel we should fly our planes into Mexico.. Even Mesa Airlines aka US Airways EXPRESS fly directly to Mexico and we should as well.

your opinion was clear the first time so you don't have to post it an extra 260 something times because I don't know if you've noticed but it doesn't seem producing any kind of a positive effect for you.

********************************************

Yeah, you are a customer that cannot stand almost 300 mad people venting their frustration about this code share... Sure, you are a customer.... ;)

goodbye cruel world, I'm leaving you today, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Goodbye all you people, there's nothing you can say, to make me change my mind, Goodbye.

Pink Floyd, about SWA

Reggie is in his "department"..... hmmmm translated "GO".......

man, I bet he'd have the best job in the world if it weren't for all those "overpaid crybaby pilots" / FAs. while we're talking about it, I bet his job would be loads more fun without all the airplanes and passengers too!! Who actually needs the hassle of flying passengers in airplanes. without all that trouble, he could just nonrev around the world and have parties on the deck at HQ .

After reading the SWAPA letter from President Carl I'm dismayed that Gary Kelly gave his word he would abide by the negotiated language on codeshares then turn around and violate it anyway.

Gary just lost my trust and my drive to care about SWA anymore.

Ladies and gentleman, Allegiant Airlines (yes Allegiant, the only PROFITABLE US based airline last quarter) just announced that will pursue International service (Mexico). That makes us pretty much the ONLY airline in this country without international or Puerto Rico and Hawaii service in this country. Good night and good luck! (I sold my stock @ $18.02 years ago)

I don't know if DAL is very happy with this milestone, but this is now THE MOST COMMENTED ITEM IN THE SOUTHWEST BLOG'S HISTORY! How sad that most of the comments are so full of anger, frustration and resentment...

Listening to the company excuses makes me think that we need to look at other airlines with renewed respect: They all (but us) have managed to enter international (and Alaska, PR and Hawaii) markets with more or less success. They all did the paperwork, trained their crews, made the investments and pulled it off. If we cannot do the same and make money, well, we are not that extraordinary.

If Gary wants to cut costs..He needs to get rid of the Rx or API team whatever their title is...Just a bunch of arrogant emplpyees.. I would like to see Mr.Kelly and this HQ's guy Reggie work a gate with back to back flights that are over selling all by themselves!!!!! Apparently WN thinks one agent can do it all alone.

Great another legacy farming it flying out.

"That's why this little kitty got a 96%. SNAP, SNAP! REGINALD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING"

Whew! Nuff said.