Dayton
Business Journal…
Southwest
leader warns of high costs
by Lance Murray, Dallas Business
Journal
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Southwest
Airlines CEO Gary Kelly is
warning his employees that high costs are a danger to the Dallas-based
carrier,
just as they were to the larger carriers that have filed for bankruptcy
protection, including American Airlines.
The
Dallas Morning News reported that
Kelly’s letter to Southwest employees said the company must rein in
costs if it
is to prosper.
“All
the majors from 1989 have gone
bankrupt. Pan Am. Eastern. Braniff. Continental. America West. TWA. US
Air.
United. Delta, Northwest. And now, America. Every single one failed,”
Kelly
said in the letter, the Morning News reported.
“Why?
Not because of customer service,
but because of high costs. Great customer service cannot overcome high
costs.
That is the imperative I wrote about a decade ago: low costs,” he wrote.
According
to the Morning News,
Southwest’s labor costs have risen nearly 32 percent to 3.94 cents per
available mile, which is higher than for competitors Delta, United and
US
Airways
Southwest
Airlines will begin flying
out of the Dayton International Airport
next year as a result of the merger with
AirTran Holdings. Recently,
airport officials announced Dayton would get a new, non-stop daily
flight from
Southwest to Denver starting next June.
AirTran
is the second busiest carrier at
Dayton, with more than 210,000 this year through the end of October.
Read
this and other articles at the Dayton
Business Journal
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