Originally Posted by enjoystravel
The current ligher loads on Southwest are only viable because of their fuel hedges. Jetblue made some wrong bets (senior executives have confessed to not using fuel hedges at the right time). WN can fly a 60% flt at the same price point profitably that B6 cannot on identical routes due to significantl lower costs. Wait another 2 years and WN will be in the same dilemma that B6 is in.
On one hand I have to argue that once the fuel hedges expire (or prices go down) that WN will be worse off than B6 because they have been around longer and therefore they have pilots with higher senority which requires more pay.
However....
The Higher pay of the senior pilots at WN may be offset by the fact that they use the more fuel effecient 737 jets, and the fact that they only have a single type of jet vs, B6's 2 types so far.
Who knows how these will factor in, but they are pretty huge factors.