Article on Gary's words regarding the international flying transition from FL to WN:

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...-results.html/

In the above link he describes international as a "drag on our results" but also describes it as being "in line with out expectations" at this point in the market transitions. I think it's a little early to really make definite statements on international performance as it's been the odd man out of sorts to the rest of the WN network as it was last bit of FL to be opened up on Southwest.com.

All that said, I think sun, beach, and vacation routes are probably okay via Southwest.com as they are just about all USA point of sale and would cater to the traditional base looking to take vacations similar to going to Florida or Las Vegas. If anything, they might be hurt a bit by not participating in things like international flight/resort packages which still seem to get a decent amount of business versus the trend for domestic travel of doing everything ala carte.

The real problem for Southwest IMO will be attempting to break into more ethnic markets where they need to sell tickets to foreigners for travel to the USA. I get the sense that they don't really "get" this market segment and the fact that the internet isn't quite as ubiquitous like it is here and that a lot of people in Latin countries prefer to use cash or at least purchase their tickets in person via booking offices and travel agents. Assuming that they are going to easily get that demographic into the habit of booking on Southwest.com with a credit card is going to set them up for a big fail.

So, to answer your question: my take is that they will eventually realize that they will need to list on the distributors and work more closely with foreign travel agents if they really want to be successful outside of the sun and sand destinations. Like you said, domestic is fine staying on Southwest.com but international not so much.

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Some more stuff I forgot:

Southwest also has their hands tied a bit in being late to the game on a lot of routes and more importantly route authorities. For example, they are forced to fly routes like SNA-SJD/PVR/MEX. Though there's more competition over at LAX but it would also give way more connecting traffic. Similar situation over at SAT for SAT-MEX... HOU-MEX would make a lot more sense but besides the issue of waiting for the international terminal there's also the problem that there are no available route authorities for HOU-MEX.