Northwest (Minneapolis: appointed, credit, transfer)

[kg1701d]

Any one else finding NWA prices to the other airports in out-state MN a little ridiculous? Also, who else is excited that Southwest is going to be flying into Minneapolis. With Northwest's recent departure from Minnesota and being bought out by United, I for one am ecstatic that fortress Minneapolis has been opened up to more reasonable airlines. $522 for round-trip from Chicago to St Cloud? A year ago I could do it for around $275 or less. I've been nothing but disappointed in NWA lately.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by kg1701d

Any one else finding NWA prices to the other airports in out-state MN a little ridiculous? Also, who else is excited that Southwest is going to be flying into Minneapolis. With Northwest's recent departure from Minnesota and being bought out by United, I for one am ecstatic that fortress Minneapolis has been opened up to more reasonable airlines. $522 for round-trip from Chicago to St Cloud? A year ago I could do it for around $275 or less. I've been nothing but disappointed in NWA lately.

I have no opinion regarding fares to smaller airports, but I would point to several items (fuel, the national economy, etc.) as possible factors. Not sure how the fares of NW or its affiliates on those routes compare to those of other carriers; are they significantly higher? If there are no other carriers, that might also explain it.

I do think it's interesting that WN (Southwest) is actually coming into MSP just a little bit, but it will take some time to see how far that goes or what impact it might have on fares to/from the Twin Cities.

BTW, it's DL (Delta) that's buying out NW, not UA.

Note: I'm a former NW IT employee currently living in Atlanta (where DL has its headquarters). Take my comments with a grain of salt.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Southwest is basically the only well run American airline. I'm very happy to see them finally entering the Twin Cities market. The increased competition will drive down prices for the destinations that SW offers.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Slig

Southwest is basically the only well run American airline. I'm very happy to see them finally entering the Twin Cities market. The increased competition will drive down prices for the destinations that SW offers.

They need to offer direct flights to major cities before it poses any threat to current NWA/Delta pricing. Business travelers are more than willing to pay an extra $200 of company money to fly direct.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by Clifford63

They need to offer direct flights to major cities before it poses any threat to current NWA/Delta pricing. Business travelers are more than willing to pay an extra $200 of company money to fly direct.

They will start small but as they begin offering more routes we will see a greater impact. Any flight they offer is going to be lower priced than the competition simply for the fact that they are able to keep costs so much lower.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Clifford63

They need to offer direct flights to major cities before it poses any threat to current NWA/Delta pricing. Business travelers are more than willing to pay an extra $200 of company money to fly direct.

I often pay extra and add an extra layover just to not fly Northwest, especially on long international flights. Never again will I sit in a Northwest plane for 14 hours on a trip to Tokyo. Northwests planes suck, they still have dirty ash trays in the armrests on their 747-400's. I would rather give money to somebody like Cathay Pacific with great service and personal entertainment systems in every seat.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Slig

Southwest is basically the only well run American airline. I'm very happy to see them finally entering the Twin Cities market. The increased competition will drive down prices for the destinations that SW offers.

Sorry to be somewhat defensive, but the first part of your comment is not as correct as you might believe.

My first inclination was to call it "crap", but I decided to be more diplomatic.

It's a lot easier to run an airline when:

• You have the luxury of having a single equipment type (and not a complex fleet from legacy mergers).
• You don't usually fly into congested airports.
• You don't normally fly into airports known for having winter weather delays.
• You don't fly internationally.
• You don't provide what some people consider basic services like interline bag transfers.
• You get lucky with fuel hedging early in the fuel crises, resulting in far lower fuel costs than your competitors.

That last item above, by itself, probably prevented WN (Southwest) from having to declare bankruptcy along with so many others.

Southwest's oil hedge could save it $1 billion or more - BloggingStocks

It's easy to criticize the large airlines for being mismanaged, and there is certainly some of that, but realize the following:

1. Airlines all over the world are failing, and have been failing, mainly for the same reasons (fuel costs), and not just in the US. And not just very large or very small airlines. The current credit crisis will emphatically not help things.
2. Most of the airlines which are not failing are being propped up by their respective governments. US airlines don't have that luxury, unlike some US banks apparently.
3. Any business which has very large fixed costs and small profit margins over time (airline are a classic example of this) will always run into difficulty when one or more of those fixed costs increase dramatically over a short period of time. See Fuel Prices.
4. To those who say "increase fares to meet expenses", you seem to be missing a couple of critical items:
   • The airline industry has been driven by deregulation and low-cost carriers into a situation where ticket price is now the primary differentiator for most customers. People complain about service, but generally make their actual decisions based on price.
   • Airlines which unilaterally raise fares are generally driven back by their competition's refusal to do the same. Raising fares unilaterally is NOT easy in this industry.
   • Airlines which join together and raise fares collectively are violating the law in the US (and probably other places like the EU) because collusion is a violation of anti-trust law. You cannot (legally) form a cartel and set prices.

In short, the financial situation in the airline industry is not a simple one to solve, or even to navigate in. I've spent 20 years of my life writing software for airlines (roughly half of that time as an airline employee, and the rest with companies which specialize in airline applications), and it has given me some appreciation for the complexities and idiosyncrasies of that industry.

Running isn't really as simple as most armchair quarterbacks believe. Look at how many people have tried to run an airline and failed. Almost 200 airlines have declared bankrupcy since 1978 (when deregulation happened) versus none before deregulation.

People might find this to be interesting reading:

unbossed.com » Fear of Flying? Life Since Deregulation - 2008

Sorry about the tone, but general statements like yours tend to set me off. You might as well state that Microsoft writes high-quality operating systems.