Southwest Airlines’ Hawaii service debuted Sunday, finally giving the nation’s largest domestic carrier a footprint in the vacation hot spot.

Southwest Flight 6808, a 5 1/2-hour nonstop flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, landed at 2 p.m. local time. It was met by Hawaii Governor David Ige and Southwest Airlines President Tom Nealon.

Passengers on the inaugural flight were treated to leis and in-flight hula dancing and were the first to sample the expanded snack pack that will be served on the no-frills airline’s Hawaii flights. In addition to the airline’s standard red bag of pretzels, passengers got Wheat Thins, Welch’s fruit snacks, Tic Tacs and a white-cheddar cheese spread. New drinks include Longboard Island Lager from Kona Brewing Company, Minute Maid pineapple orange juice and Blue Chair Bay coconut spiced rum.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2019/03/17/southwest-airlines-hawaii-flights-debut-oakland-honolulu/3194020002/

Possibility Pushes Stock Up 4%

A few days after Warren Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that the company is hoping to make “an elephant-sized acquisition,” investors have begun to speculate on what big game Buffett has in mind. The most likely candidate right now: Southwest Airlines.

Southwest’s stock, which lists under the ticker LUV, rose 4.1% Thursday to $56.04 a share as some investors bid up the stock to bet that Berkshire Hathaway may move to acquire the airline.

Berkshire Hathaway ended 2018 with $112 billion in cash and U.S. Treasuries and another $20 billion in other bonds, Buffett’s letter said. The company will always keep at least $20 billion on hand “to guard against external calamities,” Buffett wrote, leaving more than $100 billion for potential acquisitions, which he says Berkshire is eager to make at the right price.

“In the years ahead, we hope to move much of our excess liquidity into businesses that Berkshire will permanently own,” Buffett said. “The immediate prospects for that, however, are not good: Prices are sky-high for businesses possessing decent long-term prospects.”

Buffett said “the disappointing reality” was that Berkshire would keep buying stakes in publicly traded companies in the meantime. “We continue, nevertheless, to hope for an elephant-sized acquisition,” he wrote, before adding “Just writing about the possibility of a huge purchase has caused my pulse rate to soar.”

Berkshire has invested in a number of public companies, including banks like JPMorgan and Bank of America, along with tech companies like Apple and airlines like Southwest. Berkshire is already the second-largest shareholder in Southwest, which has a market cap of about $31 billion. Buffett wrote that Berkshire’s goal is to buy “ably-managed businesses… that possess favorable and durable economic characteristics.”

Those comments left Buffett-watchers guessing which company Berkshire could buy out, with some noting that Southwest’s reputation as a profitable and well-run company fits Buffett’s investment goal. An analyst report from Morgan Stanley last week viewed “a full-scale acquisition of an airline by Berkshire as a possibility and not worth dismissing.”

And Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger also recently compared airlines to the railway industry as an investment. “It was a terrible business for about 80 years,” Munger said. “But finally they got down to four big railroads and it was a better business. And something similar is happening in the airline business.”

The speculation surrounding Southwest was strong enough to draw a comment from the airline itself. In an email to StreetInsider.com, a company spokesperson said, “There has been speculation circulating that Warren Buffett might be looking to acquire an airline for some time, and that Southwest might be a good fit. As a policy, we do not comment on speculations but appreciate Berkshire’s continued support of Southwest Airlines.”

http://fortune.com/2019/02/28/southwest-stock-acquisition-warren-buffett/

Southwest Airlines is making its maiden voyage to Hawaii this week — but there won’t be any vacationers aboard.

Federal safety inspectors will fly on the Boeing 737-800 from Oakland to Honolulu in a key step for the low-cost airline’s process of getting government approval to begin commercial flights to the islands.

During the flight, which Southwest said will take off Tuesday, the airline will seek to demonstrate its long-range navigation and communication systems to inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration. The airline must get a government approval for long over-water flights, known as “extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards” or ETOPS.

Southwest, which serves destinations in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, first announced it planned to start offering service to Hawaii in October 2017. Southwest will need regulators to sign off on the airline’s ability to operate the flights safely since their path will take them more than an hour from the closest airport.

The airline has been racing to get certification to start offering the flights, which it expected to do last year. It said the partial government shutdown delayed its plans to start selling tickets because FAA inspectors were furloughed. Another partial shutdown is possible this month, since only a short-term deal was reached, and another impasse could delay the approval of the Hawaii flights once more.

“It has impacted our certification process for Hawaii,” CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC last month about the shutdown.

The airline’s decision to offer service to the Aloha State has rattled the stock of would-be competitor Hawaiian Airlines. In what’s been dubbed the “Southwest Effect,” fares are $45 lower in markets where the airline has nonstop service than in cities without those routes, a University of Virginia study found.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/southwest-airlines-set-for-first-test-flight-to-hawaii.html

Herb Kelleher, co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, died Thursday at the age of 87.

“Herb was a pioneer, a maverick, and an innovator. His vision revolutionized commercial aviation and democratized the skies. Herb’s passion, zest for life, and insatiable investment in relationships made lasting and immeasurable impressions on all who knew him and will forever be the bedrock and esprit de corps of Southwest Airlines,” the airline said in a statement. “The entire Southwest Family extends our deepest sympathies to Herb’s wife, Joan, and his entire family.”

Pack your bags and leave the winter coat at home.

Just in time for the winter freeze to arrive, Southwest Airlines is running a huge flash sale this week with super inexpensive flights as low as $49 for this winter and into spring.

This special sale won’t last long, only until Thursday, Dec. 13, at 11:59 p.m. But with travel dates available from Dec. 18 to May 22, 2019, you can start thinking about that post-holiday getaway to get over your winter blues. Some blackout dates around Christmas and New Years do apply.

Some of the best fares we found include:

Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale for $84 and Orlando for $85.

Los Angeles to both Las Vegas and San Francisco for only $61.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/southwest-airlines-sale-december-2018

EarlyBird Check-In, which gives travelers a better boarding position in Southwest’s unique open seating system, will go from a flat $15 per person each way to $15, $20 or $25 depending on the length of the flight and the popularity of EarlyBird Check-In on the route. The switch to variable pricing, unveiled to employees Friday and due to be formally announced Monday, begins Aug. 29.

Southwest, which famously doesn’t assign seats, introduced Early-Bird Check-In in 2009, charging $10 each way. It went up to $12.50 and then to $15 in 2016.

“We’re making this change so we can continue offering a product our customers love,” Southwest said in a statement. “Of course, an increase in the price of a product is rarely welcome news, but as EarlyBird increases in popularity, we want to protect the value it offers our customers.”

This will be the second fee increase for Southwest this year. Earlier this year, the airline raised its “upgraded boarding’’ fee. That is a last-minute option, available at the airport, to jump to the front of the boarding line.  It previously charged $30 or $40 each way but increased the fee to $50 on some flights. The going rate on a Chicago to Phoenix flight in July was $50.
Southwest, the nation’s largest domestic carrier, raised $358 million from EarlyBird fees in 2017. That’s peanuts compared with other airlines’ baggage fee revenue but a considerable amount of money for an airline that generally bills itself as fee-free.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2018/08/20/southwest-airlines-increase-earlybird-boarding-fee/1040502002/

Southwest 737-7H4 arriving into Dallas Love Field’s runway 31L from Lubbock Texas on Christmas Morning, 12/25/2010. [Flight 9] Approach from the southwest going over the Trinity River, Downtown, and then into Love. This is a new camera and I wasn’t sure how the mic would handle airplane noise. It handled everything except for reverse thrust. The winds were gusty out of the north, so there was quite a bit of turbulence on final approach.

You know when you are sitting on the plane, nice and warm and the guys are up in those bucket trucks de-icing it? Have you ever wondered what that would be like? Watch this video to find out about the cold but exciting job…