Signs of the Apocalypse

Minuteman

“Dongola”
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DALLAS: Southwest Airlines might add smaller planes to its fleet

Bloomberg News - Southwest Airlines Co., the discount carrier that flies only Boeing 737 jetliners to keep costs low, will consider adding smaller aircraft, CEO James Parker said.

Dallas-based Southwest flies four types of 737s, eliminating the cost to train crews and mechanics, and maintain parts for planes made by other manufacturers. JetBlue Airways Corp., a low-fare carrier that flies Airbus SAS A320s with 162 seats, is ordering smaller jets under a $3 billion contract.

"That whole issue of smaller airplanes is not something we are going to ignore," Parker said. "We're going to look at it, in light of the new technology that's available.

"Southwest is the only major U.S. airline to post profits since the September 2001 terrorist attacks as competitors had losses exceeding $20 billion. Expansion by low-fare carriers will force Southwest to start serving markets where rivals such as JetBlue fly, or move into smaller cities, said Dan Kasper, an airline economist for LECG LLC, a legal and economic consulting group in Cambridge, Mass.


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This doesn't exactly say much and I'm sure there have already been lots of threads speculating on this, but this one caught my eye because its somewhat legitimate.
 
737-600.

I'm not sure what all of the hub bub is about!
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I heard some of the maintenance guys talking about this the other night, and I didn't believe it. If our new mail contract goes through, we might have to start a CARGO division.
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With just passengers, bags, and fuel the other day I was 37 lbs away from overgrossing a 737-700. I actually had to leave things OFF the plane for the first time since last Christmas.....
 
Did you guys at SWA have to change your standard passenger weights? I know at our company we have taken a hit because of it.
 
With just passengers, bags, and fuel the other day I was 37 lbs away from overgrossing a 737-700. I actually had to leave things OFF the plane for the first time since last Christmas.....



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Is that why sometimes bags get left or sent to Guam when you fly long trips????
 
FlyChicago

With the new 180lbs and 30lb weights the Saab gets over MZFW real fast. It's impossible to take a full load of 34 now. American Eagle changed over last month.
 
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Did you guys at SWA have to change your standard passenger weights? I know at our company we have taken a hit because of it.

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Yep. That was the first time it has ever been an issue, though. Before we could almost load the whole front end of a -700 and leave nothing in the back. If we did that now, it would be out of trim according to the paperwork. What kills me is the flight was only going from MCO-MSY. I'm ASSUMING they would put more fuel on there before it went on to SAN and SJC.
 
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we [at SWA] might have to start a CARGO division


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Again ?

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Well, other than the little office where you drop packages off and some ramper takes them to the plane. I was talking more along the lines of what Northwest has, airplanes configured for cargo. Can you imagine a SWA 747-400 with a swinging nose? Nah, me neither.
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With the new 180lbs and 30lb weights the Saab gets over MZFW real fast. It's impossible to take a full load of 34 now.

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Think anyone will take any seats out and give the pax more legroom? (At 6'2", I'm always interested in potential for more legroom!)
 
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