Any more cities new nonstop from Long Island?

[Diamondbacks2004]

Since August 4, 2004, Southwest Airlines moved to the new Peter J. McGowan terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, NY. Southwest Airlines used all new four gates A5-A8 in first concourse. Southwest is currently adding four additional gates in second new concourse to the airport to bring their total to eight gates by summer 2006.

What do you think if Southwest will plan to add more nonstop cities to Long Island when new additional 4 more gates will be open by summer 2006? How about new nonstop services to Phoenix, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston or else this summer? I would love to fly nonstop to Phoenix so badly this summer and I really wish Southwest should add new one this summer. Please let me know. :unsure:

Southwest has 33 daily nonstop from Islip:

9 daily N/S to Baltimore
7 daily N/S to Chicago-Midway
5 daily N/S to Orlando
3 daily N/S to Fort Lauderdale
3 daily N/S to Tampa
3 daily N/S to West Palm Beach
2 daily N/S to Las Vegas (including with additional 1 daily N/S effective June 10th)
1 daily N/S to Fort Myers

Discontinued nonstop services to Providence, Jacksonville and Nashville on the past.

Here's a picture of new Southwest Airlines concourse at Islip-Long Island MacArthur Airport:

 

[ngneer]

I think you'll see SWA gradually add flights at ISP, nothing dramatic even with 4 more gates coming on line soon. SWA has more new planes arriving and they've got to put them somewhere, but I think probably Denver, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are higher on the list to get new flights. Last year they added 5 new flights at ISP by my count or about an 18% increase. Not huge but certainly not shabby. This year I think ISP will see less growth.

Specifically, though, non-stop Phoenix flights I think are a possibility in the not distant future. SWA is adding a second non-stop LAS flight in June which I think shows them growing their east-west traffic.

As a side note, it looks like it's time to re-name the new Peter J. McGowan concourse. Last Friday, McGowan pled guilty to using money from his campaign funds for personal use and witness tampering and resigned in disgrace from his position as Islip Town Supervisor. He could get 1-3 years in prison when he comes before the judge for sentencing in May.

 

[Tanker]

From talking with the ISP Operation Agents it looks like WN is not going to get all 4 of the new gates. They have been told that 2 of the gates are going to another airline, supposedly Jet Blue. That still leaves 2 gates for expansion, but not the 4 needed to double the service.

 

[coolflyingfool]

Sitting next to the gate podium waiting for my flight last night, I heard 3 SWA agaents talking about possible flight expansion in July. They said SWA was holding back announcing new flights but that since SWA is getting 6 planes in June and 4 in July, there should be about 40 new flights announced soon that will start in july. Hope they are the ones you are looking for. just my thoughts......

 

[Bob Owens]

Any word on when they are going to put MX in ISP?

 

[Art at ISP]

Bob,

There's a big hangar available on the other side of the field-Garret just left.

I would hope the two other incumbents would seek to expand, especially US, but that is probably asking too much. My guess regarding the other two gates is that they will have to be shared by DL, COEX and US when the terminal opens, as I think (not sure) they will demolish and rebuild that wing.

ISP is a great little airport. It's just too bad I will never fly Southwest.

 

[JS]

Bob,

There's a big hangar available on the other side of the field-Garret just left.

I would hope the two other incumbents would seek to expand, especially US, but that is probably asking too much. My guess regarding the other two gates is that they will have to be shared by DL, COEX and US when the terminal opens, as I think (not sure) they will demolish and rebuild that wing.

ISP is a great little airport. It's just too bad I will never fly Southwest.

Why? Do you not like 737's? Do you not like reasonable fares and friendly employees? Do you enjoy being forced to use a kiosk?

Last week I flew to ISP on Southwest. It is a nice little airport, although I could do without the shuttle bus to the LIRR. On the way back I switched to a hotel with shuttle service to the airport to avoid that stupid bus (five bucks to squeeze in with 15 other people in a minibus on an irregular schedule!)

Art, just take a roundtrip from ISP to MDW or something like that and then let us know why Southwest is such a terrible airline.

 

[LoneStarMike]

What about flights to IAD? ISP-BWI is 220 miles and there were 728 daily passengers on the route in Q3 2005. WN's market share was 99.17% with an avg. one-way fare of $75.88 or 34.5 cents per mile.

ISP-DCA/IAD didn't even show up on DOT's airfare report, so there must be less than 10 travelers per day on the route. (I think ISP-PVD was like that, too -- not showing up on DOT's report until Southwest started that service.) Does any other carrier offer service between ISP and either DCA or IAD?

It's a 264 mile trip and if Southwest were to price IAD-ISP similar to how they price BWI-ISP, that would be an average one-way fare of about $90.00

They could continue on as one-stops to Florida.

Mike

 

[Art at ISP]

It's simple JS--no reserved seat, no Art in a seat. Period.

And I have heard enough and seen enough episodes of Airline to stay away.

Beyond that, it's just not your concern.

Thanks for asking, however.

 

[JS]

It's simple JS--no reserved seat, no Art in a seat. Period.

And I have heard enough and seen enough episodes of Airline to stay away.

Beyond that, it's just not your concern.

Thanks for asking, however.

Actually, Southwest does have reserved seating (as opposed to a PeoplExpress standby thing). The only difference between Southwest and most other airlines is that they don't tell you which specific physical seat to take on the aircraft; you do that yourself.

I hope you don't plan on flying to LNY or MKK in the Hawaiian Islands, as those two airports are served only by Island Air and Pacific Wings, neither of which have assigned seats. You can't drive there, and a ferry would take a while, not to mention ferries don't have assigned seats, either! Oh no!

Do you ever take the LIRR? How about the Long Island Bus or NYC Transit? Amtrak? Not only do they not have assigned seats, they don't even have reserved seating! Amtrak claims that a few trains in the Northeast Corridor have "reserved seating" but all that means is that you have to buy a ticket before you board the train rather than buying one from the conductor (its only purpose is to reduce the workload on the conductors). There is no guarantee of a seat.

Anyway, back to Southwest ... believe what you want, but I think basing an opinion of an airline you've "flown" solely by TV show is pretty silly.

 

[ngneer]

What about flights to IAD? ... They could continue on as one-stops to Florida

I agree, I think ISP-IAD is likely, probably with continuing service to Florida. I hope it happens. My company already uses WN quite a bit and, with a sister division in Reston, VA, and some customers there as well, ISP-IAD would make the trip very convenient and cost effective, even paying full fare. I think that route would do well.