Originally Posted by
curbcrusher
You need to pay attention to the rest of the linked press release. The record load factor is due to the fact that their September ASMs are nearly 10% lower than the previous September. Additonally, they are putting fewer fannies in the seats.
Well, as a WN fan you may not be impressed, but from a business perspective flying about the same number of pax on 10% less capacity is pretty darn impressive.
My point is that there are potentially different paths to success in this industry. To my knowledge, AirTran is the only US airline to significantly increase load factor in September (and most US airlines significantly cut ASMs). Now it may be that WN is doing better by dramatically increasing fares and accepting much lower load factors, but I think it at least equally likely that AirTran's strategy (which relies on higher fares, but not as dramatically higher as WN's) has so far been more successful.