Things in the Sky

So apparently the announcement of Volaris as a codeshare partner hasn’t gone over the best over at Southwest, at least according to some rumors I’m hearing - I first noticed a report of this on PlaneBuzz.

There was one comment on Southwest’s own blog that I found interesting as well, and there are a few like it. (Kudos to the Southwest blog team for letting employees express discontent freely.)

The potential for profit for the COMPANY is good, but employees that depend on seniority progression for their careers should be VERY scared. This is flying we should and could be doing and now we are going to facilitate through www.southwest.com and this codeshare Volaris’ growth while we remain stagnant! This should be potentially very concerning, especially to FA’s and pilots, but as well to other employee groups! We could do this OURSELVES and in very close to this timeframe. The same can be said for the WestJet codeshare. Troubling times folks… Our upper management is outsourcing our jobs/labor progression under this overly happy disguise because we as a group tend to be very trusting employees. Remember Herb is

There’s also a very long, detailed comment on the Dallas Morning News Airline Biz Blog, if you want to check that out. (Thanks to curbcrusher on FlyerTalk for pointing that out.)

Nevertheless, it is important to see how this situation develops, especially with Southwest in labor negotiations at present. This could be “growing pains” - plenty of airlines have codeshared successfully, and Southwest is just making its first steps in this area, or it could mean something more in the long run.

Regardless, this is all based on rumors this point, and as far as I know nothing official has come out from Southwest’s unions.