Free Republic

A confident Southwest Airlines (LUV:NYSE) beat analysts' first-quarter targets Thursday and said it might very well meet or exceed its own goal of 15% earnings growth this year. On top of that forecast, the carrier said it plans to grow its fleet as well, by exercising options for 79 additional Boeing jets. Despite a 10% rise in unit costs, driven by sky-high fuel prices, the Dallas-based carrier made $61 million, or 7 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $59 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding hedging losses and gains, earnings rose to 8 cents...

Several Dallas City Council members, including Mayor Laura Miller, say they are surprised and upset that Dallas Love Field has been dipping into its reserves to pay off deficits. Now they want answers. Airport officials say they are trying to cut costs and raise revenues, looking at everything from parking rates to landing fees. On Wednesday, council members Mitchell Rasansky and Angela Hunt sent a joint memo to City Manager Mary Suhm asking for a full council briefing "as soon as possible in January." Hunt said she has also asked the city auditor's office to examine how the airport...

(CBS 11 News) CBS 11 News has learned the City of Dallas is negotiating with Southwest and Continental Airlines to raise landing fees at Dallas Love Field. The situation has angered the mayor and city council members, who will receive a briefing on the airport budget problems in January. With operating losses at Love Field and Executive Airport climbing to more than $5.5 million, the city is now taking action. Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans told CBS 11 News he's pushing staffers to raise the landing fees paid Southwest and Continental airlines charge their customers. Higher landing fees would give...

HOUSTON -- FBI agents on Tuesday arrested a San Antonio man accused of planting a note on a Southwest Airlines flight announcing falsely that a bomb was on the plane. Elias Jeremiah Cervantez, 20, of San Antonio, was charged Monday with making a false bomb threat to an aircraft. Cervantez confessed to FBI agents that he wrote the note on a gum wrapper, according to an affidavit signed by special agent Jamaal C. King A passenger on a Southwest flight from Dallas to Houston on Friday found the note in the seat pocket in front of her seat, written on...

Travelers bound for Corpus Christi were detained in Houston for hours Friday after a passenger found a note claiming there was a bomb onboard their Southwest Airlines flight. The passenger alerted the crew about the note, prompting the plane to land at an isolated part of Hobby Airport, authorities said. No one was injured, and bomb-sniffing dogs found no evidence of explosives on the plane, said Andrea McCauley, spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration. That was good news for Belia Segura of Harlingen, who was waiting anxiously for the arrival of her granddaughter Elizabeth Rodriguez, 16, at Corpus Christi International...