I think it's all too easy to get caught up in the did / didn't they achieve x quarters type of statistics. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. WN have consistently out performed the legacy carriers. Even today, while their operating performance may be down, they still aren't as bad as any of the legacies.

How did they achieve this? Not by heavy emphasis on the supposedly more profitable international routes, but by good, solid performance on the un-attractive, allegedly un-profitable domestic routes.

How was that possible, when all the legacies keep telling us thye're losing their shirt on domestic routes and are now starting to ask for monopolies, or at least price protection? The answer, surely, is Marketing 101 - WN built a product they can deliver at a price lower than the customers are willing pay, ie they're inherently profitable rather than lucky. Note, WN are not always the cheapest, yet their brand image is strong and, here's the rub for CO - it's WN who are setting the price on many domestic routes, with the legacies forced to follow. That's how much the industry has changed in the last couple of decades.

All is not, however, rosy in the garden - my hunch is WN is relying more and more on business travellers, which is actually hurting them more than they realised it would in the current climate. In a way that shift to business traffic may be inevitable - there isn't a lot of scope for growth geographically so maybe that's the only way they can continue to grow?

It's always easier running a business and motivating staff when you're growing, so to my mind they face some big adjustments if they can't get back to growth within a year or so. Like everyone else, WN needs one of the legacies to disappear. No more Chapter 11. A Chapter 7 would take out capacity and be good for everyone, eliminating some of the push for protection.