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
Wow! I must say as a frequent loyal customer of SWA, I am in shock regarding the uproar this codeshare has started. I was pretty excited about it until I started reading this blog. I love flying you guys because of your employees; always smiling and courteous. I am afraid that this codesharing business is not going to go over very well with the employee group! Please don't turn this fantastic airline into a Delta or American! Your customer service is what keeps me coming back, but with angry employees you will be just like the rest of 'em.
Good luck!
I wonder if the CEO at Volaris is a University of Texas Grad. Doesn't seem like you have to be qualified anymore to run things at SWA, just need to be a UT grad. Move your cars folks, we need some more parking on the South side of the GO for reserved parking for the new V.P's.
Sell your stock now. The ship is sinking under the weight of the Peter Principle.
I too am a concerned employee. When the announcement was first made, I naturally was concerned about my future with regards to quality of life, pay, and upgrade time. After reading this blog, I'm more concerned about the culture of Southwest being flushed down the drain. It seems that management has failed to consider the effects of marginalizing their front line employees. I sure hope someone in management is paying attention to this because if we lose the goodwill of the internal customer, the external customer's will soon follow. The only thing that keeps the public coming back is a cheap ticket, efficient operations, and our hospitality. To sacrifice this winning formula for codeshare revenue seems foolish. I may not know how to run an airline but I believe there are plenty examples on how not to. Let's not head down that road.
I too am a concerned employee. When the announcement was first made, I naturally was concerned about my future with regards to quality of life, pay, and upgrade time. After reading this blog, I'm more concerned about the culture of Southwest being flushed down the drain. It seems that management has failed to consider the effects of marginalizing their front line employees. I sure hope someone in management is paying attention to this because if we lose the goodwill of the internal customer, the external customer's will soon follow. The only thing that keeps the public coming back is a cheap ticket, efficient operations, and our hospitality. To sacrifice this winning formula for codeshare revenue seems foolish. I may not know how to run an airline but I believe there are plenty examples on how not to. Let's not head down that road.
Im with cflightattendant we are all a team. I wish everyone would take a deep breath we will all be OK. Its very upsetting to hear all these nagative comments on this post. lets work together.
While I wish Southwest could fly to these great destinations with thier own aircraft and flt crews. I do know Southwest has been good to its employees. where you do not have to worry about layoffs and paycuts like some of the other airlines. Hopifully one day Southwest will fly these routes themselfs once they get established on the codeshare routes and see that they can make money on them. Maybe they are testing the waters first. I do think the codeshare is better than nothing. The only thing I worry about is the other LCC getting a foot hold on the routes first before SWA can do it them selfs. just my two cents.
No bueno, I don't like this codeshare... Europe, Asia, and even Hawaii are easy to understand, but north and south are easy picking for Southwest to do themselves. Things that make you go, hmmmm....
This is truly a sad day in my professional career. Reading all these posts along with the hundreds of posts on the SWAPA website has made it abundantly clear this is the beginning of the end of Southwest Airlines. Every company has a select few complainers but there have been vocal angry pilots who have never said a peep about anything for years and years.
I don't know the answers to codeshare. If it's possible for SWA to make a profit or not but I am sure the culture of this airline is dying. I've never seen so much anger and discontent before. I always thought getting to SWA meant job security but I'm going to start polishing up my resume. Not because codesharing puts another airline in the mix but because this codesharing business is destroying employees perception of what SWA means.
Whomever reads this for the executives really needs to step up and show Gary and Colleen these posts.
This is terrible...
Sorry my post came out three times I could not get it to go through the first two times but I guess it did sorry about that I luv SWA.
I don't understand why Southwest Airlines can not fly to Mexico using it own aircraft. Airtran, Jetblue, Spirit, Frontier and Alaska plus all legacy carriers all fly to Mexico using its own brand and do it very well. Also Airtran, Spirit, Jetblue fly to the Caribbean using its own AIrcraft and flt crews and they keep adding to their caribbean and mexcian destinations while Southwest just sits back and wants to just do a codeshare. I am sure it was a big risk for them but they did it. and thier growing thier caribbean and mexico destinations. Also how about more business center like ATL, CLT, NYC, BOS, MEM, MKE, RIC, to cater to more business select flyers and generate more business flyer revenues for Southwest.