Southwest CEO Gary Kelly was one of the featured speakers on the airline CEO panel at NBTA earlier this month. After his talk, he took a few minutes to sit down with me, Johnny Jet, and Dan Webb (from Things in the Sky) to answer any questions we might have. I’m not sure how, but this draft fell through the cracks and didn’t get published. I still think it’s relevant and interesting, so, here are the highlights.

Johnny kicked off the questioning, and he asked about international plans.

Gary stated, “We definitely have plans to go international. Our first foray will be with our codeshare partners. I wouldn’t put any limits on our route system. All of those near international destinations [are possible].”

If you heard the recent news by ATW that Southwest said it would be going to long haul international, you can forget that for the foreseeable future. That was just not true.

Then Dan took a swing at some questions. He asked about Frontier’s Lynx operation. Since Southwest had first said it wasn’t interested in Lynx but then changed its mind, did that mean we might see Q400s in Southwest colors?

Gary brushed that off. “That was just live analysis that was taking place. . . . I told folks that we don’t have a vision for a regional jet operation. In the Frontier case, it’s there, so while it doesn’t fit with our vision, we’d have to deal with Lynx. It was very important in terms of the communities they serve.”

When Dan pressed him about the chance of the Q400 actually entering the fleet, Gary was firm. “It’s a pretty easy answer. Unless there’s some special set of circumstances, the answer is no.”

Bummer. Then the question was expanded to ask whether they would consider other aircraft manufacturers to supply their fleet.

Gary gave a somewhat cryptic response. “We’ll need to continue to keep our options open in the future in terms of fleet types. We’d love to keep flying Boeing exclusively, but that’s not a requirement.”

I took that to mean that they would like Boeing to think that they could go elsewhere but in reality, that won’t happen.

I chimed in and asked if they were thinking about other models of the 737, including the shorter 737-600 or (more likely) the longer 737-800 and 737-900.

Gary said no. “There’s no thought at this point . . . . We’re continue to evaluate whether a bigger airplane would serve us well but there’s not much effort underway. We’re hard-wired for 3 flight attendants – the fourth [as required for larger aircraft] becomes a technology issue and then why do you need it? . . . . I don’t think we’ve stretched the limits yet of the -700. We want to be very innovative. I think in the next year or two we may have a couple experiments along those lines.”

Interesting. I do wonder what it means to stretch the limits. Hawai’i? Caribbean? Unclear.

Gary confirmed that he didn’t see the airline’s seating policy or boarding process changing anytime soon, but there will be a Rapid Rewards relaunch as well as a next generation southwest.com coming next year.

I closed the time there with a question about Denver. It’s been unprofitable so far, so would they change any plans now that they lost the Frontier bid?

Gary got a little defensive here. “No. A lot of [those comments] were misguided. All new markets have a period of development. It has been the most successful city startup so far in the history of Southwest.”

By “successful,” I believe he’s referring to the fastest ramp-up. I’m pretty sure they aren’t measuring that based on profitability. But since then they’ve added more Denver service, so clearly the plan hasn’t changed.

If you’re flying Northwest domestically beginning November 1 or internationally beginning October 24, you’re going to want to double-check your ticket. Delta is changing every Northwest flight number.

This is unfortunately a necessary part of every merger. As the airlines get closer to having everything operate under a single code, flight numbers have to shift. For example, Northwest flight 1 is a historical flight – it’s been the flight from LA to Tokyo for years – but Delta has decided to move that one and keep its relatively new flight 1 from New York to London in place. The LA to Tokyo flight will now be flight 301.

Northwest’s international flights will now be in the range of 250 to 349. Meanwhile, domestic flights will be split between two ranges. All DC-9 operated flights will fall in the 7000-7999 range while all other domestic flights will be between 2000 and 2009 2999.

Don’t think you’ve escaped if you’re booked on a Delta flight number for these Northwest-operated flights. Those may be shifting to some extent as well.

The changes are all loaded, so if you’re flying on Northwest airplanes you’ll want to double-check to make sure you know your flight number. It’s better to figure it out now than when you show up at the airport and don’t see yours anywhere on the board.

Updated 9/23 @ 9a to fix flight number range

Spirit is one of those airlines that people seem to love to hate, and now the government is getting in on the act as well. The DOT has assessed a massive $375,000 fine on Spirit for all kinds of shenanigans (they’ll only have to pay $215,000 if they don’t violate it again). This is a pretty hefty fine for something that’s not safety-related.

So what exactly did they do? Well, this was all a result of the analysis of complaints that came in to the DOT from customers. I dove in to the DOT filing to get the full details.

Denied Boarding Compensation
Basically, Spirit bumped passengers and didn’t follow the rules. They also were uncooperative when inspectors asked for information. The DOT didn’t get too specific here other than saying that “Spirit bumped passengers, but did not follow one or more of the provisions of 14 CFR 250.” That’s the denied boarding piece of legislation that allow airlines to oversell flights.

In exchange for being able to oversell flights, airlines have to agree to the following:

• Any passenger who holds confirmed reserved space on a flight and is involuntarily bumped must be compensated
• Before that passenger can be bumped, the airline has to ask for volunteers
• If there aren’t enough volunteers, the customer must be given cash or a check for the amount stipulated by the law right there at the airport
• Airlines are allowed to offer vouchers instead, but they first have to tell the passenger how much they could have in cold hard cash
• Airlines have to provide written notice to any passenger that is bumped involuntarily

So Spirit broke one or more of those rules but I don’t know the details. It could have been something as small as not handing out the written notice and instead doing it verbally. Or it could have been something really major like not offering compensation.

Delayed Reporting
As we all know, airlines have to file a variety of reports with the DOT regarding financial fitness (balance sheets, traffic information, etc). On more than one occasion, Spirit was late in filing some reports. They were warned not to do it again, but those warnings were apparently ignored. Oops.

Fail to Keep Required Complaint Records
Spirit decided that keeping complaint letters was too difficult, despite the fact that it’s required by law. Instead, they entered a “brief synopsis” of the complaint into their tracking system and then shredded the letter. The DOT was not too thrilled about this since they wanted those letters as part of their investigation.

Failing to Provide Disabled Passenger Information
Twice, DOT inspectors tried to get Spirit to provide them with the federal rules on disabled passengers at the ticket counter in Ft Lauderdale and twice it didn’t happen. In case you didn’t see this coming, it’s required that a written copy be kept at each airport by each airline.

Delayed Bag Payments
Spirit spent plenty of time delaying payments for lost bags. According to the DOT, it took one person 14 months to get anything out of them. While there isn’t any maximum time to respond in the law, the DOT says delays like this are unfair and deceptive. That’s not legal.

Not Paying Lost Bag Travel Expenses
14 CFR 254.4 clearly (well, as clearly as government can be) states that airlines need to compensate passengers up to $3,300 for “provable direct or consequential damages resulting from the disappearance of, damage to, or delay in delivery of a passenger’s personal property.” They apparently only followed this rule on the outbound of a roundtrip ticket and only for expenses incurred more than 24 hours after the bag was lost.

Translation: They withheld money that they owed people for losing or damaging their bags.

Lying About FAA and DOT Regulations
From the wording in the complaint, this one clearly pissed off the DOT. Spirit employees seem to have invoked the old “we don’t wanna do this but the FAA or DOT makes us” strategy in some cases when dealing with passengers, even if the complaint had nothing to do with federal regulations.

Violating the Full Fare Ad Rule
Airlines are required to advertise their full fare, well, sort of. They have to advertise the full fare but that can exclude government imposed taxes or fees like PFCs and the September 11th Security Fee. But Spirit failed to include its online booking fee on its ads on its website, and that’s a no-no.

Failing to Take Responsibility for Bags on International Flights
International flights are governed by the Montreal Convention when it comes to lost bags, and that Convention specifically states that the airline is liable for anything checked in the luggage while its in the airline’s control. Spirit went against that and failed to take responsibility in some cases.

—
So there you have it. According to Spirit, this is all ancient history and none of this has happened for over a year. So if that’s the case, then they may not have anything to worry about going forward. But, it still helps to reinforce the image in travelers’ minds that Spirit is not exactly playing fair. Spirit has never really cared much about its image. Those low fares tend to speak for themselves anyway.

Well, well. It looks like the Republic Airways integration has now begun. In November, we’ll start seeing Frontier A319s flying out of Milwaukee under the Midwest name. Later that month, we’ll also be seeing Republic Embraer 190s come out to Denver to fly for Frontier.

The A319s will be doing the kind of flying you’d expect from Milwaukee – longer haul and Florida (where volume is king). The flights to Vegas, Phoenix, and LA (including my holiday flight this year) will be on A319s as will flights to Orlando. Later that month, another airplane will start flying to Tampa and Ft Myers.

You’ll remember that the LA flight was supposed to be operated by the long range Embraer 190s, but that’s not the case anymore. So where will those airplanes go? They’re heading to Denver to make up for the loss of the A319s. Those will be spread on flights throughout the Frontier system.

It appears that the A319 flights will be operated as Midwest Airlines flights but they’ll be flown by Frontier crews. Go to midwestairlines.com and do a search. You’ll see they say some flights are operated by Frontier Airlines just like you’d expect to see from a regional carrier. (Those flights don’t show up on frontierairlines.com.) This is just what I thought might happen to Frontier, and I think it’s smart. Putting the A319s on longer haul and high demand routes like Florida in the winter makes a lot of sense. It allows Republic to shift capacity to better match demand now that it has a more flexible fleet.

These flights were apparently just loaded because you can see the Embraers in Denver on frontierairlines.com and the A319s in Milwaukee on midwestairlines.com, but I don’t see them anywhere else yet. I imagine it will be loaded into the other reservation systems this week.

And now, to answer the most important question on all your minds . . . will there still be cookies on the A319? It seems the answer is yes. On the Midwest site, it clearly states that there will be “Best Care Cuisine” on these flights. That includes fresh-baked cookies. Whew. I know you were concerned.

Why Comair’s On-Time Performance is More Concerning Than Atlantic Southeast’s – BNET
Comair and ASA both sat at the bottom of the July on-time performance derby, but the airlines appear to have two different problems.

Meaningless Mishandled Bag Numbers Plunge in July – BNET
Bag mishandlings are down, but the strange method of calculating the number makes these numbers pretty useless.

The Longest Delays Are In the Northeast – BNET
This is no surprise, but for those wanting a passenger bill of rights, I have a better idea.

Midwest Starts Milwaukee – St Louis on American’s Turf – BNET
Before American announced its St Louis pulldown, I wondered about this move. Now with hindsight, it makes sense.

Update: American Eliminates St Louis Hub – BNET
Just a quick update on my previous post.

American Raises $1.3 Billion in Cash – BNET
It wasn’t just route announcements that had American making news. They also raised a bunch of cash.