Southwest Airlines annual report

Quote: Nareed

I wonder how long they'll be able to keep it up. While the gulf tiny kingdoms are well-positioned for a crossroads, longer ranges on aircraft means more direct flights from Europe or the Americas to Asia and Africa. Realistically, traffic to Dubai or Doha is relatively small.

I send some people to DBX
I have never ever sent somebody to DOH, just connect through

Quote: terapined

Quote: Nareed

I wonder how long they'll be able to keep it up. While the gulf tiny kingdoms are well-positioned for a crossroads, longer ranges on aircraft means more direct flights from Europe or the Americas to Asia and Africa. Realistically, traffic to Dubai or Doha is relatively small.

I send some people to DBX
I have never ever sent somebody to DOH, just connect through

I have only been to Bahrain and Oman.

Bahrain is the traditional urban center of the Gulf, but ethnic tension has removed it from it's central position. Also they have very little oil, so they don't have the wealth of their neighbors. The royal family is Sunni, while most of the people are Shia. There is a lot of violence and "potential violence".

Oman is very backward and was held back from developing by the old Sultan who ruled for 38 years, but was overthrown by his son with the help of the British. The problem is the son has now ruled for 46 years with absolute power. He was married for only a few years to his first cousin, but they did not produce any children. As marriage and succession is so vital to any toyal, he is naturally thought to be homosexual.

Dubai and Doha are very different places. Most of the citizens of United Arab Emirates have been to Europe or USA. While they are still Muslim, they are very global in outlook. Qatar is very conservative, basically similar to Saudi Arabia.

Dubai World City (DWC) may very well have the majority of it's one million residents be citizens of other nations. If it ever comes to fruition.

Range of A320neo is supposed to be 3500nm, so showing 3200-3500nm you may be able to reach Singapore. That may take a long range A321

Quote: Pacomartin

I have only been to Bahrain and Oman.

The farthest East I've ever been is Israel.

Quote:

Oman is very backward and was held back from developing by the old Sultan who ruled for 38 years, but was overthrown by his son with the help of the British.

Oh, that's a bad revision on history. The old sultan who kept Oman from developing was propped up by the British for every day of his rule. British troops put down rebellions there.

Quote:

Range of A320neo is supposed to be 3500nm, so showing 3200-3500nm you may be able to reach Singapore. That may take a long range A321

Far as I know, Emirates is allergic to narrow bodies :)

Quote: Nareed

Far as I know, Emirates is allergic to narrow bodies :)

Dubai's government also owns a low cost airline that has ordered 60 B737-800s (8 not delivered yet), and has another 75 B737-8Max on order.

The airline does not try to poach customers from its sister airline Emirates and aims to serve destinations on new routes that previously did not exist, linking Dubai with the home country of guest workers and low cost travel destinations. So think Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, India, Russia, and Bangkok, but not the major cities in Europe, Singapore, Japan, or Australia.

https://www.flydubai.com/en/

Quote: Nareed

Oh, that's a bad revision on history. The old sultan who kept Oman from developing was propped up by the British for every day of his rule. British troops put down rebellions there.

OK, I should use the term "forcibly retired" to live out the final two years of his life in a 5 star hotel in London. The father and son did not speak for over a year before the coup even though they lived in the same palace. The father had the son jailed at age 24 when he returned from Britain.

Oman had an infant mortality rate of 75%. Trachoma, venereal disease and malnutrition were widespread. There were only 3 schools, with the literacy rate at 5%, and 6 miles of paved roads before the 1970 coup.

Quote: Pacomartin

Dubai's government also owns a low cost airline that has ordered 60 B737-800s (8 not delivered yet), and has another 75 B737-8Max on order.

I assume governments in the region own all airlines, either outright or through subsidies and regulation. But are these two connected or are they separate companies?

Quote:

OK, I should use the term "forcibly retired" to live out the final two years of his life in a London hotel.

Not a term per se, but the truth is "removed by the British once they had no further use for him."

Quote:

Oman had an infant mortality rate of 75%. Trachoma, venereal disease and malnutrition were widespread. There were only 3 schools, with the literacy rate at 5%, and 6 miles of paved roads before the 1970 coup.

You know, the US gets a lot of flack for the consequences of tis foreign interventions, and much of it is deserved. But other countries have done as badly, though perhaps at a smaller scale, and no one seems to notice.

Maybe I can frame my point about Southwest Airlines a little better.

FAA designates 30 airports as large and another 30 as medium. Last year 72.62% of enplanements occurred at large airports and 88.03% of enplanements occurred at large and medium airports. But there are another 72 airports considered small and an additional 413 airports with some kind of commercial service.

Southwest (as our major airline that still flies point to point) in the last five years had average costs go up by $13 which they countered by having the price of tickets go up by $13. But fuel for an average trip has dropped by $25 which is all going to operating income. They are increasing their passengers/year by simply retiring their smaller jets and flying the same number of trips with more seats.

Southwest services
24 out of 30 large airports (DFW, HNL,IAH,JFK,MIA,ORD are the 6 large hub airports not served)
27 out of 30 medium airport (Cincinnati Airport is the only medium airport not in Hawaii or Alaska not served)
33 out of the 72 small airports, and
3 airports in Texas that are below small (legacy of earliest history of the company). Amarillo, Corpus Christi, and Harlingen/South Padre Island

So Southwest may eventually expand into Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and possibly pick up a few more smaller airports, but it looks like there improvement will end when the last of 18 planes with fewer than 143 seats are retired. By next year they will retire 96 Boeing 737-300 and replace them with B737-800s and B737-8Max.

It would be nice if Mexican airlines could come and compete on point to point flights in small airports. There seems to be no USA airline interested in this business.

Quote: Pacomartin

It would be nice if Mexican airlines could come and compete on point to point flights in small airports. There seems to be no USA airline interested in this business.

Isn't this off-topic? What doe sit have to do with geopolitics as applied by fading imperial powers in the Middle East ? ;)

But ok.

Again, I favor letting any airline operate any routes anywhere, without having to jump through any more hoops than a local airline. That is, if Interjet wanted to fly passengers from LAX to LAS to DFW to MIA, they should be able to, without any more in the way of regulation than those faced by, say Southwest or United.

This is not currently the case, and few airlines, if any, are ever allowed to carry passengers within a foreign country (ie a country with a flag different from the airline's).

But if it were allowed, I don't see much benefit for Mexican airlines to do so, except perhaps for some well-traveled, popular routes that can connect to their networks within Mexico as well. I don't see them setting up flies between Podunk and Tar Heel.

You also need to ask: why would they want to? It's not as though there isn't growth within Mexico still.

I think I've mentioned CINTRA. A few years back, it was a government-owned company that held control over both Aeromexico and Mexicana (I forget why exactly). Back then there wasn't much additional competition for domestic flights. Therefore prices for domestic flights were sky-high (no pun intended), while international flights were reasonably priced. Flying from MEX to MTY was cheaper if you went via IAH.

One remedy advocated loudly in editorials and by financial experts was to let US-based airlines compete in domestic flights.

Eventually the airlines were sold, to separate owners, and the monopoly ended. Prices came down.

Quote: Nareed

Isn't this off-topic? What doe sit have to do with geopolitics as applied by fading imperial powers in the Middle East ? ;)

Actually the Middle East was off topic. we started on Southwest Airline

Let me give you an example airport , McAllen Miller International Airport, about 4 miles from Mexican border. It's probably the largest population in the USA that is the most underserved by any air travel. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX MSA is 842,304.

MFE Air service
Allegiant Air: Las Vegas (1210 mi) Seasonal: Los Angeles (1318mi), Sanford/Orlando(1059 mi)
American Airlines: Dallas/Fort Worth (469 mi)
United Airlines: Houston–Intercontinental (316 mi)
Aeromar: Mexico City (467 mi)

Potentially people may want to fly from MFE to other cities
MFE SAT 232 mi San Antonio
MFE AUS 279 mi Austin
MFE ELP 627 mi El Paso

Nobody is interested in this airport even though 800K people live in the area. Not Delta or Southwest. American and United just have connnection to nearest hub.Perhaps Volaris or Vivaaerobus can make a profit out of this airport.

Quote: Pacomartin

McAllen Miller International Airport, about 4 miles from Mexican border.

I think I've seen it. I don't recall very well, but in 1997 the whole family went to Reynosa for my brother's wedding. For me the attraction was shopping in McAllen. I think we passed near the airport once.

Quote:

Nobody is interested in this airport even though 800K people live in the area. Not Delta or Southwest. American and United just have connnection to nearest hub.Perhaps Volaris or Vivaaerobus can make a profit out of this airport.

I think if they wanted to, they'd promote flights from Reynosa to points in Texas. Too bad the airport in Reynosa is not right at the border the way it is in Tijuana. Still, it's perfectly viable. Crossing into Mexico is quick and with few lines. Though on the return trip the lines are looooooooooooooooong and slooooooooooooooooooooooooow going back to the US.

Quote: Nareed

I think I've seen it. I don't recall very well, but in 1997 the whole family went to Reynosa for my brother's wedding. For me the attraction was shopping in McAllen. I think we passed near the airport once.

Probably. it is 12 air miles from Reynosa airport to McAllen. Even closer than the 18 miles from San Diego airport to Tijuana airport.
The MFE airport is right near downtown so you could easily have passed it.

Quote: Nareed

I think if they wanted to, they'd promote flights from Reynosa to points in Texas. Too bad the airport in Reynosa is not right at the border the way it is in Tijuana. Still, it's perfectly viable. Crossing into Mexico is quick and with few lines. Though on the return trip the lines are looooooooooooooooong and slooooooooooooooooooooooooow going back to the US.

The airport in TJ had about 1/3 passengers from San Diego County even before they built the bridge. SO I imagine most people who want to fly to Mexico cross the border by land and fly out of Rex.
Reynosa is served by all the Mexican airlines.

Six border airports in Mexico and rank
#5 Tijuana International Airport Tijuana, BC TIJ/MMTJ 3,649,500
#17 Abraham González International Airport Ciudad Juárez, Chih CJS/MMCS 633,919
#26 General Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada International Airport Mexicali, BC MXL/MMML 461,400
#30 General Lucio Blanco International Airport Reynosa, Tamps REX/MMRX 198,138
#37 Tapachula International Airport Tapachula, Chis TAP/MMTP 185,159
#50 Quetzalcóatl International Airport Nuevo Laredo, Tamps NLD/MMPA 97,344
-----------------------------------------------

But you get my point that there are airports all over Texas that have little or no service except for expensive hub connections to Houston and Dallas
.

TX commercial service airports ranked in order of passengers carried
DFW Fort Worth
IAH Houston
DAL Dallas
HOU Houston
AUS Austin
SAT San Antonio
ELP El Paso
MAF Midland
LBB Lubbock
MFE McAllen
AMA Amarillo
CRP Corpus Christi
HRL Harlingen
GRK Killeen
BRO Brownsville
LRD Laredo
CLL College Station
ABI Abilene
TYR Tyler
SJT San Angelo
ACT Waco
SPS Wichita Falls
BPT Beaumont
GGG Longview