Southwest has unions and has been profitable each year of operation,
with high employee and customer satisfaction, no?
UAL salary / wages amount to 41% of their total expenses, roughly the same ratio as American Airlines and slightly higher than the 38% for NorthWest Airlines or 35% for Southwest. But, not only does UAL have one of the most independent and labor oriented boards in the industry - it has no significant bank ties. In other words, it spread its business around Wall Street as opposed to doing lots of repeat business with the same banks. A counter example - American Airlines, the most vocal UAL rival - tight with Morgan Stanley who's CEO is on their board and with Citigroup with whom they have a joint debit card program. They've done over $8bln in aircraft lease deals compared to UAL's $5bln. Also, UAL's political contributions per year are less than half the amount of AA and NW. It has fewer friends on Wall Street and in DC.
As part of their business plan to trim over $14bln in costs, UAL had announced last week, that it and its unions agreed to a $5.8bln, 5 year, labor cost cutting program.
Nomi
