More Confirmation Southwest is Thinking Hawaii

Sure seems like I’m fixated on Southwest lately.  🙂

Buried in a telephone message from Gary Kelly to his staff about furloughs was a nugget about Hawaii:

“Fuel prices are the biggest challenge typically that we face, and I’ve already mentioned to you all through my messages that we face very significant challenges from competition. So when it comes to job furloughs, what we need to do is keep Southwest Airlines profitable, look for opportunities to grow our networks and we’ll always have good alternatives to fly our jets. That’s why it’s so important that we get ready for Hawaii, that we get ready for Alaska, that we get ready for near-international.”

No doubt in my mind the Hawaii nugget is a good one for customers.  Alaska, too.

And, “near-international” sure is intriguing.  As I’ve said in the past, I don’t anticipate sitting on a Southwest jet for 5 or 6 hours, but I’m strongly in favor of more competition on these routes.