[Rhodes22-list] Airlines

[Brad Haslett]

Jb,

One of the unique aspects of SWA is that they don't micro-manage.
They give even the lowest levels of employees the authority to "do the
right thing" and don't beat them about the head and shoulders if they
screw-up.  If they do screw-up, they ask, "what did you learn, what
can we learn?"  I was living in Nashville and dating a SWA gate agent
when American closed their Nashville hub.  She got a call the next
day, "we're opening 13 new gates tomorrow".  The dozen or so Nashville
employees went out and bought poster cardboard, wrote SouthWest
airlines and drew hearts, duct taped them to the gates, and opened for
business.  The first SWA airplane that landed had 30 agents from
Dallas on board who stayed in Nashville for a month and partied and
worked their asses off until locals could be hired and trained.
Remember, these were UNION workers.  They love their company and the
company loves them.

Pretty simple.

Brad

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 4:25 PM, JbTek <j.bulfer at jbtek.com> wrote:
> So why doesn't anyone learn anything from SWA?
> Maybe the big "O" should bring on there managers for advice, not stupid
> politions that have never run a business.
> Jb
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 Email List" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 3:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Airlines
>
>
>> Slim,
>>
>> They should sweat SWA.  Wherever they go they eventually dominate the
>> market.  What most people don't know about SWA is that they pre-date
>> the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (they started the same year as
>> FedEx - 1973), SWA is almost 100% union, and they pay the highest
>> wages in most positions.  The difference is (and this difference is
>> HUGE) that they are the most productive airline flying.  They only fly
>> one type of airplane, they don't try to be all things to all
>> customers, and they only fly profitable route segments.
>>
>> SWA coming to town is great news if you are a consumer and not so
>> great news if you are a competitor.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 2:58 PM, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Brad,
>> >
>> > Nobody here at NWA headquarters seems to be sweating the merger w/Delta
> as
>> > much as sweating the arrival of Southwest here at MSP.  Everybody has to
>> > slash their fares to match SWA.  Ex:  $69.00 one-way to Chicago.
>> >
>> > Slim
>> >
>> > On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 8:11 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> There's some neat shots in this video -
>> >>
>> >> http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQ2TEQhoy8
>> >>
>> >> Cheer up boys and girls, at least you're still flying and collecting a
>> >> paycheck under the Delta banner!  NorthWest used to be known as the
>> >> Cobra airline, they'll strike at anything.  A lot of my friends from
>> >> the early days went to work there and had a pretty good ride for the
>> >> most part. And look at the bright side of things, NorthWest
>> >> consistently won the award for the ugliest paint jobs.
>> >>
>> >> Brad
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