In the Trenches: Debating Rapid Growth – Small Business Center
We’ve been evaluating some opportunities to grow the concierge busy fairly quickly. We think the time is finally right to proceed if the right opportunity comes along.
Southwest CEO sees BWI as international gateway – Baltimore Sun
A long article about what’s happening with Southwest. I spoke with the author about the changes to the Rapid Rewards program.
Announcing our 15th birthday cake contest finalists
It’s time once again for the annual JetBlue cake contest, and I was invited to judge again.
7 comments on “Cranky on the Web – Growing Quickly, Rapid Rewards Changes, JetBlue Cakes”
The top two placing cakes were nice, but LGA to ‘blue’ and kind of dull looking, and IAD was just sad compared to the first two.
BWI could do well as an international gateway if WN really puts their heart into it. If they do, it could add other international service which hasn’t always lasted when BWI did have more.
I believe that eventually SWA’s route map out of BWI will show flights to 15-20 destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America, along with select flights to Canada. It will look like JetBlue’s route map to the same region from JFK. Of course, Europe and Asia are not an option given SWA’s commitment to the 737. As for other international service, WOW has moved up their planned service to Iceland because of stronger than anticipated demand, and I hear that the seasonal flights to Frankfurt on Condor are doing well, and that the BA daily to Heathrow is showing nice momentum.
I think all the jetBlue cakes were awesome. BWI was the best, but all the cakes show great technique, creativity and passion. I like the concept of the IAD one – very clever.
Sticking to 737s doesn’t necessarily preclude Southwest from someday serving western Europe. They’ve never exactly been known to shy away from routes that include stops. According to the listed stats on Wikipedia, assuming accuracy, the range of the Max-7 (they have 30 on order) will be 3800 miles, and the Max-8 (170 on order, 191 options) 3620 miles. That’s not THAT much less than the 757 with winglets at 4100 miles. BWI to Stansted or Gatwick is ~3653 miles. Do the math, and a -7 could just barely make it, but not a -8. Put in a refueling stop at (for example) Halifax or Moncton or St. John’s or Gander on the way, (of these, only Halifax has US Customs preclearance on the way back) and/or Dublin or Shannon on the way back (both of which have preclearance facilities) and it opens up quite a few possibilities. Of course, unless Southwest were to break with its recent track record and actually offer lower fares, there wouldn’t be any real advantage. From a passenger comfort point of view there isn’t THAT much basic difference between a 757 and a 737 that isn’t solely at the discretion of the airline (seat cushions/pitch and service).
Add a cooperative agreement of some type with easyJet or Ryanair to the formula and you’d have a heck of a lot of choices of final destinations across Europe, potential connecting problems aside.
I tend to follow all of this… But is there en the possibility that southwest would even operate transatlantic flights? The only real succes has been in Asia.. With AirAsia X, an even that wasn’t too successful
There really hasn’t been much success yet on long haul low cost. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen some day but the odds are stacked against the new entrants. But mid-haul has worked in pockets. WestJet seems very happy with its 737s between Canada and Europe.