24 June 2008

Southwest introduces "No Surprise Fees"

Southwest is running a great series of newspaper ads showing its pricing vs legacy airlines pricing.

http://www.southwest.com/nofees/

This is the irreverent and fun "poke you in the eye" Southwest we have been missing for a while.

At least finally someone is saying enough. Just get the fares right. It is amazing to me that someone would have to even SAY this sort of thing. Why can't the US Airlines do what the European and Asian carriers have been doing for years - actually publishing a fuel surcharge and being transparent about it. NAH, that's way too hard and smart and.... However the Grand Order of Lemmings - the GOoL Airlines - are marching in lock step to the cliff.

Will anyone else follow WN's lead? I doubt it.

Well guess what - I can almost guarantee that WN will post more passengers (vs declines in traffic on the other airlines) higher load factors and greater profits (vs losses on the other airlines). Thank you GOoL team - you just saved WN's bacon for at least a year.

I wonder how those wunderkinds on Wall Street will feel about that when the Q3 and Q4 numbers come in?

Cheers

Timothy

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