News and notes from around the interweb:
- Southwest Airlines COO says big network changes are coming, not eliminating a city but this should be big, and told to employees based on big effects on them.
[W]e try everything before we can make difficult decisions. We have a couple of difficult decisions heading our way. It’s not station closures. But we need to keep moving the network to help us drive back to profitability. And so I apologize in advance if you as an individual are affected by it. But I hope you understand that as we make these things, it’s not, you know, without lots of efforts otherwise.
- Reportedly Elliott Management wants Southwest Airlines to have more professional-looking uniforms as part of a premium push, ditching polos and shorts:
there's rumor Elliot Investments wants Southwest to ditch polo shirts and shorts and somebody sent me this screenshot. NO IDEA if it's real— 100% unconfirmed on my end pic.twitter.com/OhzKag8Qcj
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 19, 2024
- American Airlines now allows changes for tickets originating in many more destinations of the world.
- “How Does New York City Manage Their Airports?”
- Filthadelphia airport ranked last in customer satisfaction four years in a row
- Etihad wants to fly its Airbus A380s ‘as long as they can’ and until ‘at least’ 2032 which is fantastic for passengers.
The photo of the new Southwest uniforms shows a Hilary Clinton look-alike on the right side . The flight attendants ought to all be Hilary Clinton look-alikes . All used car salesmen ought to be Bill Clinton look-alikes .
WN is going to look and operate like every other mainline carrier soon. It’s sad to see, but inevitable given their inertia to change over the years.
How far the hemlines have fallen since the Hot Pants 70’s
Re: WN – if not station closures, what are the big huge changes that could so drastically affect employees? Less staffing? Reduced hours? More automation on the ground?
I’m assuming there’s going to be “do more with less” and pushing passengers towards self service.
What Elliott Management really wants is the total destruction and dismantling of Southwest. Airlines, in the end for pure greed.
@American
Sounds like capitalism?
So, no more Hot Dog on a Stick?!
Such a shame that Elliot is destroying Southwest. I won’t be flying them anymore. They’re just like everybody else now.
@ Adam L
you seem a little confused about what capitalism is. it gives you, the consumer, the power of choice. you can fly 10 different airlines in the United States and not just one government airline. you can buy as many cars as you can afford, from over 20 different manufacturers. not just a lada. as a worker. Since companies have to compete against other companies to win customers, those companies have to innovate. that is why you are on this website, using a computer or mobile device. you can also afford these things since companies have to pay their workers top dollar to retain the best talent.
Cannot wait for the changes. Hopefully, they’ll stop the spread of the Jetway Jesus cult and their enablers. stopping a cult will be difficult and require hard changes, so can only hope
If Elliot isn’t happy with the casualness of the flight crew uniforms, they must be having heart attacks with the dress code (or lack of one) at corporate. Those employees, including executives, will need a clothing bonus to buy anything nicer than jeans and tees/polos.
How petty.
How about SW fixing their IT problems and not worrying about what some stodgy board members think of shirts.
Fewer 3+ hour connecting times?
I fly a lot, American (Platinum Pro) for overseas and SWA state side. Fix stuff that needs fixing so there is not another Christmas meltdown. As far as uniforms, it’s not the uniform that makes SWA flight and ground crews wonderful, it’s the type of people that SWA puts in that uniform. Let’s go back to shorts and polos. When flight attendants can take a plane load of not happy passengers and by the end everyone is smiling.
The 60,000 CoHearts of SWA would appreciate it if people would keep their unfounded speculations to themselves. We Luv our company and our customers and are committed to the legendary customer service that has always set us apart.
@William The network adjustments would be things like reducing unprofitable flights. One big example is the ATL cut that they announced a few days after this announcement. ATL isn’t a profitable focus city for Southwest with Delta dominating the scene and Southwest’s existing BNA focus only a short hop away. Moving more service to BNA and cutting ATL back to a regular outstation is going to be part of these changes and it makes perfect sense. Trying to run two large bases just 30 minutes from each other doesn’t make much sense in most cases.