They been trying to get LUV in there for years.
150 cities have been trying to get LUV for years. That doesn't mean anything.
Right now, COS is #4 on Southwest's list of future cities. They WILL be coming to COS, they've clearly mentioned that. But Southwest has other things in mind before. They asked COS to do some airport improvements such as finish building the connector bridge to the 5 new gates that were built for Western Pacific.
And COS got that job done in December 2001. Southwest will come, but they have other cities in mind at first. You'll probably see Southwest in COS in 2005, MAYBE 2004, but that's kind of pushing it since they add 2-3 cities per year usually and in 2003 they won't be adding any as announced.
As for Air Tran to COS. I've heard that Air Tran does intend to serve COS. In 1999, they visited COS to check out the facilities and they were interested. Now the expansion to the west has begun. Eventually I think you'll see COS and other cities.
COS is a good market, one that is underserved as well.
America West Express (operated by Mesa) hasn't been able to keep up with the demand on PHX-COS and they had 6 CRJ flights. So 2 of the flights were upgraded to 733s last month.
COS is not small, it has slightly over half a million people. It's close proximity to Denver has been the biggest reason why it has had difficulty attracting new airlines.
However, Vanguard Airlines flew 2 flights from MCI to COS before they went kaput.
Both flights were originally operated on 737-200s and both were upgraded to MD-80s soon after. Not to mention that they were planning on adding a 3rd flight because of the loads they were experiencing.
There has been talks lately about Alaska Airlines serving COS, possibly late this year, or sometime next year.
Anyways....
Good luck Air Tran and welcome to the Mile High City