United is still in Chapter 11 because there are a lot of jobs at stake (political pressure) and aircraft leases at stake (financial pressure). Boeing, EADS, and GECAS don't want a flood of aircraft on the market should UAL liquidate.
Southwest, like most LCCs, is a blood sucking leech on the industry. They cherry pick the most lucrative markets and drive the price down to unrealistic levels. Then, once the market is theirs, they raise the price back to a sustainable yield. A hub carrier has built in inefficiencies such as turn times and utilization that the point to poiunt carriers do not have. But the LCCs do not serve the many destinations that the hub carriers do, many of them smaller markets that SWA would never bother with. The airline business provides a public service, a service of wide ranging transportation to a political and geographic area. LCCs do not provide service outside their limited city pairs and do not provide as big a public benefit as do a hub carrier.
When 43% of a ticket dollar goes to taxes and fuel goes up to $45 dollars a barrel and the government just shrugs its shoulders then you have a tough situation to be in. UAL lost half of the airliners in 9/11. The pilots were the first to die. Yet pilots are portrayed as the problem when the real problem is the fact that no one will charge a fare that will make them any money. Management are just wetting themselves with this chance to take those uppity pilots down a notch. They will come running, though the next time they need the pilots to step up and work out a solution to the next crisis.