We're codesharing with who...or is it whom...I always forget, but who cares? I should be writing this in Spanish...do you write in Spanish? Wow, I'm struggling today with what few writing skills I have, probably because I'm so excited about the announcement of our second International codeshare partner - Volaris.
It's Volaris...yes Volaris! You know, if you fuse the Spanish word volar (to fly) with the word Polaris (North Star) you get Volaris? Well, that's how they came up with their name, and I think it's a pretty cool name. What's even cooler is that Volaris is an exceptional low-cost airline flying in Mexico. They are focused on high levels of Customer Service and provide a great inflight experience. Volaris plans to begin flying in to the US sometime in 2009 and will become Southwest Airlines' Mexico codeshare partner in early 2010. If you haven't heard of Volaris, here's a little information that should give you a feel for them and why we think they will be a great partner!
Like our new codeshare partner WestJet, Volaris presently serves some pretty cool destinations...or should I say hot destinations! Places like Cancun, Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Acapulco are certainly great places to vacation. Mexico City (via Toluca), Monterrey, and Guadalajara are great business travel destinations and will complement our efforts to attract more business travelers.
Also, like WestJet, Volaris has a fun corporate culture. On one of our visits to their Headquarters, their VP of Sales was having his head shaved in front of the Volaris Employees—it was payback for the Employees who had met a revenue goal that he challenged them to meet. Their Employees are very energetic and love their airline. Their Customers join in the fun as well. They recently had an inflight concert! My favorite Customer experience was influenced by the free tequila and cerveza they served! They also give away Krispy Kreme donuts! It's a regular Fiesta!!! Oh yes, and every Volaris plane is named after one of their valued Customers. I can't wait to see Ricardo!
Unlike WestJet, Volaris is an unknown brand in the US. Although they are relatively small and certainly new (they began flying in 2006), Volaris has proven themselves itself as a successful and viable airline and are developing a new generation of flyers in Mexico. Coupled with the Southwest brand, network, and Customer base, the opportunities are huge.
Okay, enough of my rambling, whadoyouthink?
Comments
"Our stock hit the single digit mark today. 9 bucks. Keep announcing code-shares! party is over my friends....
Anonymous — Wed, 11/12/2008 - 15:20"
This makes me wonder if that is because of the few of you who are spamming this blog with all your whining. What else are investors supposed to think when they see all of the complaints? I'm a union employee myself, and while I am a little apprehensive about this codeshare, if it's a way to gain revenue so we can all keep our jobs, it can only be a good thing. Who's to say we won't be taking over these routes in a few years with our own metal? We can only wait and see what will happen instead of making doomsday predictions.
Keep in mind that once upon a time, Southwest was just a startup company, and without the support of our Customers, we wouldnt be here.
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!
F/A here, married to Bill the pilot! He's great!
My two cents? This is just not worth it. We need to get back on track and start growing again. If we're now a big airline and there no where to go, then just say it. If our labor costs are killing the company, then just say it. But this is not the way. We are Southwest Airlines and we built this company by going it alone. That really does matter to us. My brother is in the US military and he sometimes talks about the problems the government has with contractor companies doing what the military should be doing. Same thing here. Keep it together. Just my opinion.
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.
Pilot here, married to a FA. LUV the company, but...
Since ATA, I've watched the pilots extend patience and flexibility to a new management team. At every step there's been good faith and good will by SWAPA. But now? I just think that patience has run out. And what worries me is I know this group. When the trust goes away so do a lot of initiatives like fuel conservation, RNP, extra fly, strollers, etc. This is worse that I witnessed in 2001 so I'd urge the company to rethink the value its placing on this strategy. With respect, ^ bill
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.
Go ahead Gary, ram this down our throats. Make our day. WE DARE YOU.
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.
This is a horrible decision by Southwest. Volaris is an unproven entity, no safety or service record. Notably this agreement does not take effect for 2 years. Most likely it never will and this announcement is just a ploy in the 2+ year pilot contract negotiations. Southwest is outsourcing American jobs in favor of a low rent foreign operator. I fully expect Southwest management to come back to the pilots and ask for wage and benefit reductions if Southwest will drop this sham of an agreement. The fabled trust and spirit of Southwest is being eroded daily by idiotic decisions like this. Southwest is traded under the stock symbol LUV. It should be changed to JAA -- Just Another Airline. Shame on you!!!
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