Southwest Suspending hiring through 2024....

Looks like the tide is once again shifting in several places… Big Ern says SW is becoming very competitive again.

View: https://youtu.be/gj0taDDl7IQ?si=KXPVkZdFqS73CADC
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The young, super low time guys aren't too bad to fly with. They just don't have any good stories to tell yet. Makes for boring pilot speed dating on day one.

"So... do you like... stuff?"
"Do you live near the airport?"

"So what did you do before this?"
"I did sales engineering in the telecom sector for almost 25 years."
"Oh...."
"Anyway, this hotel on the overnight we're staying at....I once saw a full set of clowns - in makeup - come traipsing through the lobby and no one batted an eye."
"What?"
<storytime ensues>
 
"So what did you do before this?"
"I did sales engineering in the telecom sector for almost 25 years."
"Oh...."
"Anyway, this hotel on the overnight we're staying at....I once saw a full set of clowns - in makeup - come traipsing through the lobby and no one batted an eye."
"What?"
<storytime ensues>

You have no idea... our former San Jose hotel was amazing thanks to the Anime, Comic, and Furry conventions. Plus, thanks to overselling, I once got a suite with a TV built into the bathroom mirror. So bougie! And Sacramento... home of a monthly or bi-monthly upside down pineapple appreciation group. Unfortunately did not coincide with the very depressing turkey day I was stuck there. (But, I did enjoy a very cringe filled night where an inebriated senior AA CA tried desperately to hook up with his FAs as we were all eating together that night, my crew and his.)
 
More color on the hiring freeze from today's 8K filing. Boeing revised the delivery schedule down from 79 to 46 MAX-8s, I didn't see anything on the plans changing for the retirement of 40 aircraft previously announced so if that stays the same there is just 6 airplanes for growth. They did say the are reevaluating all 2024 guidance and capacity for the back half of the year.

With the hiring freeze they are planning on headcount being down year over year.
 
More color on the hiring freeze from today's 8K filing. Boeing revised the delivery schedule down from 79 to 46 MAX-8s, I didn't see anything on the plans changing for the retirement of 40 aircraft previously announced so if that stays the same there is just 6 airplanes for growth. They did say the are reevaluating all 2024 guidance and capacity for the back half of the year.

With the hiring freeze they are planning on headcount being down year over year.
What airline? SW?
 
The retirement wave compared to hiring is going to normalize over the next decade(s).

500 retirements sounds like a lot, but it isn’t when the list is 17,000+. That’s basically like 3%.

AA is the only one with bigger numbers but even that will normalize.
 
More color on the hiring freeze from today's 8K filing. Boeing revised the delivery schedule down from 79 to 46 MAX-8s, I didn't see anything on the plans changing for the retirement of 40 aircraft previously announced so if that stays the same there is just 6 airplanes for growth. They did say the are reevaluating all 2024 guidance and capacity for the back half of the year.

With the hiring freeze they are planning on headcount being down year over year.
It’s crazy that Airbus and Boeing are hosing the industry with manufacturing issues at the same time.
 
I think the problem for WN, is that they were looking for a sub 150 pax airplane, with a 4000 mile range. They want to use that airplane both as a SWA RJ-analog, but also to introduce long, thin city pairs. When the max didn’t happen on schedule there are just very few alternatives out there.

If I were king of Embraer right now I’d be rushing to design an “E195 E2-Plus”, 5 abreast, with a 4000 mile range, that could be delivered by 2027, and setting up a US office in Dallas and manufacturing near Waco or something. I’d call it the Embraer Luvjet - designed exclusively for SWA and built in Texas.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm! 🤓
 
It is funny, but I actually thought yesterday about how I wish AS would eye the 195 E2 now. I have never been legitimately less confident in Boeing's future and more importantly, the 737 MAX program, than I am right now. Do I wish we would have gone with A321 NEOs even more so in hindsight? Absolutely...
 

I think the problem for WN, is that they were looking for a sub 150 pax airplane, with a 4000 mile range. They want to use that airplane both as a SWA RJ-analog, but also to introduce long, thin city pairs. When the max didn’t happen on schedule there are just very few alternatives out there.

If I were king of Embraer right now I’d be rushing to design an “E195 E2-Plus”, 5 abreast, with a 4000 mile range, that could be delivered by 2027, and setting up a US office in Dallas and manufacturing near Waco or something. I’d call it the Embraer Luvjet - designed exclusively for SWA and built in Texas.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm! 🤓
5 abreast? Yikes
 
"So what did you do before this?"
"I did sales engineering in the telecom sector for almost 25 years."
"Oh...."
"Anyway, this hotel on the overnight we're staying at....I once saw a full set of clowns - in makeup - come traipsing through the lobby and no one batted an eye."
"What?"
<storytime ensues>

Back in my mid-twentiies when I was at AMF....We had a weekens layover in KBED for medical nuke flying. Well the hotel had a monthly gathering in one of it's banquet room for a grouo of women who had labeled themselves "Heavenly Bodies". They were all plus-sized and would actively buy drinks for any guy wondering through the hotel. They were really aggressive. It was interesting being on the flip-side of the coin. These ladies eventually were banned from having their event at the hotel because they were too roudy.
 
I think the problem for WN, is that they were looking for a sub 150 pax airplane, with a 4000 mile range. They want to use that airplane both as a SWA RJ-analog, but also to introduce long, thin city pairs. When the max didn’t happen on schedule there are just very few alternatives out there.

If I were king of Embraer right now I’d be rushing to design an “E195 E2-Plus”, 5 abreast, with a 4000 mile range, that could be delivered by 2027, and setting up a US office in Dallas and manufacturing near Waco or something. I’d call it the Embraer Luvjet - designed exclusively for SWA and built in Texas.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm! 🤓
But can they put a -200 overhead panel in it?
 
Back in my mid-twentiies when I was at AMF....We had a weekens layover in KBED for medical nuke flying. Well the hotel had a monthly gathering in one of it's banquet room for a grouo of women who had labeled themselves "Heavenly Bodies". They were all plus-sized and would actively buy drinks for any guy wondering through the hotel. They were really aggressive. It was interesting being on the flip-side of the coin. These ladies eventually were banned from having their event at the hotel because they were too roudy.
Mark this down as the only time I wish I had done a stint at AMF!!
 
I think the problem for WN, is that they were looking for a sub 150 pax airplane, with a 4000 mile range. They want to use that airplane both as a SWA RJ-analog, but also to introduce long, thin city pairs. When the max didn’t happen on schedule there are just very few alternatives out there.

If I were king of Embraer right now I’d be rushing to design an “E195 E2-Plus”, 5 abreast, with a 4000 mile range, that could be delivered by 2027, and setting up a US office in Dallas and manufacturing near Waco or something. I’d call it the Embraer Luvjet - designed exclusively for SWA and built in Texas.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm! 🤓

The A220 is damn close to what you're describing. Especially with the paper-range-increase.

 
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