When Desperate Times = Advantagous Situations

As many people begin to panic about the status of our airlines, with the combination of fuel prices, route cancellations, security issues, etc., Jeff and I were thinking about Southwest Airlines. American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways have all announced plans to begin charging for checked bags. United is pulling the plug on its low-fare carrier, TED and is cutting 17% of its domestic seat capacity. US Airways is going to charge $2 for a soda. ATA, an airline my sister and I used for low-cost flight from Chicago to DC, went kaput in April. The network airlines (Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways) reportedly have posted a collective operating loss of more than $1.32 billion in the first quarter of 2008, compared with an operating profit of $559 million in the same quarter of 2007. So its obvious, airlines are tanking ... and we are all screwed.

But What About Southwest Airlines?
Southwest has still managed to be the only profitable airline and is currently ranked as the top U.S. airline in a major customer satisfaction survey. As Jeff and I kept hearing about all of the airlines desperate attempts to stay afloat, we wondered if this kind of environment actually was beneficial to good-old Southwest. Next thing you know I see this in the paper:

As a PhD student in Marketing, this type of stuff interests me. Sometimes negative situations for many create opportunities for others ... and Southwest is like a hawk swooping down on its prey. By pointing out its lack of fees it clearly demonstrates how ridiculous this situation really is and all the other airlines can do is just act like the sitting ducks they are and wait it out.