how do they not lose money

[Codewiz]

Ummm Airlines doesn't pay their employees JACKCRAP(except for pilots). My mom would have quit a LONG time ago if it wasn't for the flight benefits. You can get a higher paying job at Home Depot or Lowes than the airlines.

BTW, my mom is a ticket agent.

 

[biostud]

low salary + nice bonuses

 

[alent1234]

southwest uses a single type of plane that cuts down on maintenance and training expenses.
southwest does not have a bloated corporate organization like many airlines.
southwest's employees get paid less than the traditional carriers.
southwest and jet blue have brand new planes that require much less maintenance. Some of the old loe cost carriers like ValueJet bought old planes that killed them in maintenance costs. FAA has strict rules about replacing parts after a plane operates for a certain number of hours.
This means that a plane arrives, unloads, loads up again with paying passengers and then takes off again. Jet Blue's leather seats are fast to clean which means fast turn around time. planes don't bring in revenue when they are parked at the gate.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: her34
can someone explain how southwest flight maps/scheduling allows them to be so much cheaper than other airlines

They specifically fly out of smaller airports that allow quick turnaround times. This means that their planes are grounded for a very short amount of time, and they can schedule more flights than other airlines within a given period of time.

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: her34
can someone explain how southwest flight maps/scheduling allows them to be so much cheaper than other airlines

They specifically fly out of smaller airports that allow quick turnaround times. This means that their planes are grounded for a very short amount of time, and they can schedule more flights than other airlines within a given period of time.

forgot about that. in school i'm doing a project on southwest airlines and this was in their annual reports. They look at operating in smaller airports like Chicago's Midway. Less congestion means less chance of late arrivals and better turn around time.

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: biostud
low salary + nice bonuses

bonuses? i don't see any bonuses

 

[3chordcharlie]

It actually makes a great deal of sense as others have pointed out. Flying a plane on a route is very expensive. Adding one more passenger is essentially free. So the airline can provide a very valuable service to the employee at almost no cost to themselves. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[her34]

Originally posted by: alent1234
southwest uses a single type of plane that cuts down on maintenance and training expenses.
southwest does not have a bloated corporate organization like many airlines.
southwest's employees get paid less than the traditional carriers.
southwest and jet blue have brand new planes that require much less maintenance. Some of the old loe cost carriers like ValueJet bought old planes that killed them in maintenance costs. FAA has strict rules about replacing parts after a plane operates for a certain number of hours.
This means that a plane arrives, unloads, loads up again with paying passengers and then takes off again. Jet Blue's leather seats are fast to clean which means fast turn around time. planes don't bring in revenue when they are parked at the gate.

you have any general numbers comparing employee salary from airlines?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: alent1234
southwest and jet blue have brand new planes that require much less maintenance. Some of the old loe cost carriers like ValueJet bought old planes that killed them in maintenance costs. FAA has strict rules about replacing parts after a plane operates for a certain number of hours.

?

Every time I've flown Southwest, it has been an ANCIENT 737 (I believe their entire fleet is 737's). I don't mind, since they have a perfect safety record...but I certainly haven't seen any of these new planes.

 

[alent1234]

boeing is still making 737's. Pretty sure southwest is buying them brand new.

http://www.southwest.com/inves...uarterly_earnings.html

southwest is buying boeing 737-700's to be exact. here is the schedule.

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: alent1234
southwest and jet blue have brand new planes that require much less maintenance. Some of the old loe cost carriers like ValueJet bought old planes that killed them in maintenance costs. FAA has strict rules about replacing parts after a plane operates for a certain number of hours.

?

Every time I've flown Southwest, it has been an ANCIENT 737 (I believe their entire fleet is 737's). I don't mind, since they have a perfect safety record...but I certainly haven't seen any of these new planes.

i was about to say that too. Southwest DOES NOT have a new fleet. the airline with the newest fleet is ATA. half of their planes were built between 2001 and 2003.

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: alent1234
boeing is still making 737's. Pretty sure southwest is buying them brand new.

http://www.southwest.com/inves...uarterly_earnings.html

southwest is buying boeing 737-700's to be exact. here is the schedule.

thank god. they needed those new planes.

 

[alent1234]

off Southwest's annual report

the average age of the fleet is 10 years and they are in the process of retiring all the old aircraft and replacing them with new aircraft. they are also doing upgrades on the current fleet to save on operating costs.

 

[jimikim]

Originally posted by: Yossarian

Originally posted by: jspeicher
Most major airlines are making NO money on tickets right now. They are losing a few bucks on EVERY ticket they sell. Their profit comes from the added stuff that you choose to buylike meals, movies, etc,. So sad.

I doubt that. Do you have anything to back that up?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AMR&annual

That is the financial statement for American Airlines. 2003 they lost $1.2 Billion, 2002 they lost $3.5 Billion, 2001 they lost $1.76 Billion. They also borrowed about $7 Billion and cut capital expenditures over the last 3 years to stay afloat.

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: COLLEGERESOURCES
how are airline companies able to give away free tickets to there employees as a perk (i have a couple of friends who families can fly free pretty much anywhere as long as they fly standby)....i understand that the plane is goin regardless, and if the seat is empty then they arent really losing money...but why wouldnt they still charge like 50% of the ticket cost to their employees instead...at least they would still make something

Did you have wobbuffet's keyboard when registering your user name?

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: jimikim

Originally posted by: Yossarian

Originally posted by: jspeicher
Most major airlines are making NO money on tickets right now. They are losing a few bucks on EVERY ticket they sell. Their profit comes from the added stuff that you choose to buylike meals, movies, etc,. So sad.

I doubt that. Do you have anything to back that up?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AMR&annual

That is the financial statement for American Airlines. 2003 they lost $1.2 Billion, 2002 they lost $3.5 Billion, 2001 they lost $1.76 Billion. They also borrowed about $7 Billion and cut capital expenditures over the last 3 years to stay afloat.

AA, United, Delta, US Airways, NorthWest and Continental are not like JetBlue and Southwest. The former are bloated organizations that have never made money for their investors. JetBlue and most of the other low cost carriers have lean organizations and make money on the actual ticket.

It costs the legacy carriers something around 15 cents to fly one seat one mile. JetBlue is 9 cents or less.

 

[xchangx]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: her34
can someone explain how southwest flight maps/scheduling allows them to be so much cheaper than other airlines

They specifically fly out of smaller airports that allow quick turnaround times. This means that their planes are grounded for a very short amount of time, and they can schedule more flights than other airlines within a given period of time.

They also fly to smaller airports because the major ones cost a lot of money to land.

True they have older planes, but they are all the same. This means less money on training employess how to maintain different planes.

They put a lot of thought into cutting costs, like Wal-mart's "pull a paper-clip out the trash" concept.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: alent1234
southwest uses a single type of plane that cuts down on maintenance and training expenses.
southwest does not have a bloated corporate organization like many airlines.
southwest's employees get paid less than the traditional carriers.
southwest and jet blue have brand new planes that require much less maintenance. Some of the old loe cost carriers like ValueJet bought old planes that killed them in maintenance costs. FAA has strict rules about replacing parts after a plane operates for a certain number of hours.
This means that a plane arrives, unloads, loads up again with paying passengers and then takes off again. Jet Blue's leather seats are fast to clean which means fast turn around time. planes don't bring in revenue when they are parked at the gate.

also the don't forget
Big Fuel-Hedging

It a big reason why...check out the article pretty neat.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: jspeicher
Most major airlines are making NO money on tickets right now. They are losing a few bucks on EVERY ticket they sell. Their profit comes from the added stuff that you choose to buylike meals, movies, etc,. So sad.

EDIT: ANd extra fees they've been adding lately.

1cent increase in fuel prices means millions/billions in costs for airlines as well. WEeeeeeeeeeeee

Not really. They're losing money on those heavily discount economy tickets (the kind that most of us pay for), but they make money on those full fare/business/first tickets.

Except that last minute business travel has dropped off the radar as companies looks to cut costs. Thats the business model Northwest, American, USAIr. United, and Delta relied on, now they are all in Bankruptcy or flirting with it.

Southwest on the other hand has stressed expense management. They found early on it was better to use lower paid flight attendents, origin-destination structures, etc rather than relying on the last minute business traveler to buy that $1000 ticket. Southwest is still financially healthy.