Do you find yourself breathing a little deeper these days?
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It’s getting darker and darker, the work pressure is getting harder and harder.
You need to be somewhere different. You need to experience different people, different places and different smells.
In essence, you want to go far.
However, cheap, convenient flights are not so easy to find.
Airlines don’t see a drop in demand. Their executives are salivating at images of packed flights and even the temptation of overbooking.
This is sure to leave passengers wondering, as they try to find a holiday flight – and then the money to pay for it – why doesn’t the holiday fly like it used to?
Helpfully, Southwest Airlines decided to tell them.
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Well, not exactly for passengers, but let’s tell the financial community why Southwest isn’t making more money now.
As the airline presented very good Q3 results – record revenue, record passenger numbers – the airline’s CEO offered a bit of nuance. Speaking to CNBC, Mr musesin a unique way, which his airline cannot offer, say, a record number of flights.
In the fourth quarter, he said, the airline was “looking again for revenue as capacity fell.”
I took my abacus and realized that this could just mean more expensive flights. How else would the airline make more money from fewer seats?
When asked where the real problem lies, Jordan was brief: “It’s really the pilots.”
Is he blaming the pilots who Currently not very satisfied with Southwest – for lack of more capacity? God, no. He blamed the lack of more pilots on a lack of more capacity.
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“We are short of pilots to fly all of our planes,” he said. “Our classes are full, we’re getting pilots, we’re getting great pilots, but our training centers are full.”
But how long can this situation last? Jordan admits: “We won’t be able to catch the plane until, perhaps the end of 2023. So this pilot shortage may not be a pure pandemic, but something that will. Last longer?
What does that mean about Southwest’s ability to provide seating for desperate people who just want to run away?
“If we had all the pilots we needed, we could fly 5 to 8% more ASM (seat availability),” Jordan said.
Perhaps you also sympathize. You realize that hiring has been difficult for the past year or two. And naturally, I want to make up with you.
I just had one thought etched in my head.
When the pandemic hit, the airlines begged for our money – i.e. through the government. They have received tens of billions of dollars in relief money.
One of their next steps is to offer employee acquisitions — including, what you know, pilots. It is clear that the number of employees has been reduced. However, the bailout money is supposed to keep the band together. It is supposed to keep airlines fully staffed for the inevitable post-pandemic rush.
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You’re experiencing that knocking, too, aren’t you? You’re imagining that some of this relief could have been used to pay for employee buybacks.
Naturally, I would not dream of such cynical logic. However, the House Oversight Committee recently Ask the Treasury Department whether, oh no, the airlines could have used your money to get rid of headcount. Including the number of pilots.
Oh, you know that passengers can’t do anything about all of this. Similarly, passengers know how frustrating cancellations – and higher fares – have been for a long time.
I wonder how many people will change specific plans because Southwest can’t increase capacity by 5 to 8%.
I hope you have planned your vacation. And please, look forward to next year. Maybe, just maybe, supply will meet demand.
Probably.
