Not Feeling The LUV ?

(Not Feeling The LUV ?)

Southwest Airlines began operating in 1975 on routes within the state of Texas. At the time, larger airdromes were being constructed in Houston (Intercontinental, now George Bush) and Dallas (Dallas-Fort Worth Regional). That left Houston's original Hobby Airport and Dallas Love Field largely vacant as the Braniff's, the Delta's, Pan American, Trans World and United's moved to the larger facilities. So Southwest emerged as a discount carrier, literally a no frills airline that was able to operate more cheaply than the legacy airlines.


Now. over time and over the next few years, Braniff, Pan Am, and TWA all went bankrupt. Southwest was able to move into the vacuum created by this shuffling of market share and now Southwest could chart routes decidedly outside the southwest. The airline has been flying to La Guardia and there is even service from San Antonio to Honolulu, with a stop in Oakland.


Southwest never had its own "hub and spoke" system but instead flies point to point. There is no change of planes but instead a direct flight. Houston Hobby (HOU) flies straight to New Orleans (MSY). Or DCA (Reagan National) to MCI (Kansas City). Now, under normal operating conditions, this system works well. There is never any assigned seating and a passenger simply boards, flies, and lands.


Now, Southwest airlines has been under a fair amount of justifiable criticism because of its inability to process its share of Christmas travelers. Flights had to be canceled by the hundreds, a lack of planes and crews, stranding thousands to sleep on airport floors. How long will it take to identify and transit all the luggage ?


In the end. the no frills airline lived up to its name. But one of the frills that Southwest might want to retore would be the ability to actually fly people from here to there. Next time there is a major winter event, Herb's people could be better prepared/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Siege Of The Alamo

(Siege Of The Alamo) Any visitor to Downtown San Antonio will recognize the City's most famous landmark, the Alamo. An old Spanish mission that means "Cottonwood" in English was the site where the likes of Jim Bowie, William Barrett Travis and Davy Crockett and about another 185 Texians defended the Mission and its compound for thirteen days against the Army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and his 5,000 troops. The garrison was finally reduced on March 6, 1836. However, the Texian defeat at the Alamo and another one at Goliad, bought time for General Sam Houston time to fall back and then face Santa Ana at San Jacinto. There, Houston's army surprised the Mexicans and yelling "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad !" all but wiped out the Mexican force. Santa Ana was captured and was forced to recognize the Republic of Texas. Which is now the State of Texas and, like 1836 Texas War of Independence, there is a new invasion from Mexico. Not the armed body o
Read more

TEQUILA !

(TEQUILA !) Happy Cinco de Mayo or May 5th. One can hope that a lot of you out there are awash in inebriation, seeking to mainline tequila shots or enjoying a nice margarita on the patio. Or, in other words, relax. Take a breath. De-compress. May 5th as it happens is the anniversary of Mexico's victory over French "occupation" of Mexico by Emperor Maximillian, brother to Austrian monarch Maria Theresa in what has been called the Battle of Puebla. The reason France was in Mexico in the first place was that Mexico, after the Mexican-American War and a more civil conflict called the Reform War, had bankrupted Mexico City. Mexican President at the time was Benito Juarez, who repudiated all foreign debt, of which France, Spain, and the United Kingdom were all major holders. A naval expedition was dispatched to Veracruz and France's Napoleon III thought it would be a good idea to establish a French "empire" in Mexico. But, on May 5th, 1862, in the aforementioned B
Read more

Intended Consequences

(Intended Consequences) For those Readers who live in the Tri-State area, who had the earthquake this morning, just be still.  There is a postulate called the Law of Un-Intended Consequences. Basically, it says that even with the best intentions, negative results sometimes happen. However, there are also instances when a negative result is precisely the desired outcome. Like with the Israel- Hamas war where the Biden Administration continues to press for an all but unilateral ceasefire on the part of Israel. In California, the new $20/HR minimum wage is wreaking havoc on the fast food industry. And finally, after depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil has now become too expensive. How many times must the Biden Administration think it can influence Israeli affairs ? How many times must Israel ignore it. Threats from the President have become redundant at this point but is Biden really prepared to cut Israel loose ? In the middle of the greatest crisis Israel is facing since the
Read more