Luv that 'new service' smell ;-)

[swflyer]

Southwest Airlines Pumps Up Schedule for Spring and Summer Travel; Airline Adds Flights in 15 City-Pairs, Including New Orleans
DALLAS, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) announced today the addition of 15 new flights in 15 city-pairs across the nation, six of which will serve New Orleans. The new flights will be added in four installments. To take advantage of this new Southwest Airlines service and super low fares, visit: http://www.southwest.com/jp/luvhome.shtml?...wservice_022306 .

"Southwest Airlines Customers are traveling at record rates, and they're asking for more flights," said Kevin Krone, Southwest Airline's Vice President of Marketing, Sales, and Distribution. "We're pumping up our service to get ready for spring and summer travel."

The 15 additional flights break down as follows:

BEGINNING APRIL 28, 2006

* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between Las Vegas and Orlando.
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Chicago Midway and Buffalo (for a total of three daily).
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Chicago Midway and Salt Lake City (for a total of two daily).
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Chicago Midway and Las Vegas (for a total of 11 daily).

BEGINNING MAY 25, 2006

* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between Chicago Midway and Orange County.
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Las Vegas and Orange County (for a total of five daily).

BEGINNING JUNE 10, 2006

New Orleans Service:
* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood.
* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Phoenix.
* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Las Vegas.
* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Baltimore/Washington.
* One new daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Chicago Midway.
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between New Orleans and Houston Hobby (for a total of nine daily).

Other New Service:
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Seattle and Las Vegas (for a total of three daily).
* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Long Island/Islip and Las Vegas (for a total of two daily).

BEGINNING JUNE 11, 2006

* One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Chicago Midway and St. Louis (for a total of 11 daily).

"Our Customer's demand for travel to and from New Orleans is strong, and we are pleased to support New Orleans by adding more flights," Krone said. "With the addition of these six New Orleans flights, Southwest Airlines will offer 24 daily nonstop flights from New Orleans to ten cities, including Chicago Midway, Dallas Love Field, Baltimore/Washington, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, Houston Hobby, Las Vegas, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, and Tampa Bay."

http://www.southwest.com

SOURCE Southwest Airlines
02/23/2006

 

[mga707]

"Our Customer's demand for travel to and from New Orleans is strong, and we are pleased to support New Orleans by adding more flights," Krone said. "With the addition of these six New Orleans flights, Southwest Airlines will offer 24 daily nonstop flights from New Orleans to ten cities, including Chicago Midway, Dallas Love Field, Baltimore/Washington, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, Houston Hobby, Las Vegas, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, and Tampa Bay."

Pre-storm, WN had 56 daily MSY departures to 17 cities.
Still not resumed, or announced, are BHM, IND, JAX, LAX, OAK, PHL, and SAN.
While the other six had single daily nonstops, the BHM-MSY market was served by five daily flights. Really surprised that at least a flight or two to BHM has not been announced.

 

[coolflyingfool]

WOW! Connecting the 2 biggest resort destinations should be great business, LAS-MCO. 11 LAS-MDW, holy cow! Thanks for all the returning MSY service.

 

[corl737]

Thanks for all the returning MSY service.

SWA's seemingly sloth-like return to MSY makes perfect sense. Rather than simply parking their airplanes waiting for the New Orleans airport to reestablish it's infrastructure, SWA prudently redeployed those assets, most visibly through the opening of new service to Denver. With all their aircraft gainfully employed, MSY will benefit with each new aircraft SWA receives, but that pace is predicated on a predetermined delivery schedule.

 

[mga707]

SWA's seemingly sloth-like return to MSY makes perfect sense. Rather than simply parking their airplanes waiting for the New Orleans airport to reestablish it's infrastructure, SWA prudently redeployed those assets, most visibly through the opening of new service to Denver. With all their aircraft gainfully employed, MSY will benefit with each new aircraft SWA receives, but that pace is predicated on a predetermined delivery schedule.

Any insight as to why Birmingham has so far been shut out of the picture, when BHM-MSY was a multi-frequency route before? The other cities that had five or more flights--HOU/DAL/MCO/TPA--have all been resumed, but not BHM. Just seems strange.

 

[corl737]

Any insight as to why Birmingham has so far been shut out of the picture, when BHM-MSY was a multi-frequency route before? The other cities that had five or more flights -- HOU/DAL/MCO/TPA -- have all been resumed, but not BHM. Just seems strange.

If I recall from the past, weren't all of BHM's flights to MSY continuations of flights originating in other cities? With the dropoff in tourism traffic, most of the passengers going to MSY are returning residents or relief workers. It may be that BHM is just close enough that people in these categories who are curently in BHM simply drove out of Katrina's way and don't need air transportation back to the area. Thus, stopping in BHM to pick up phantom customers doesn't make sense yet.

Of course I'm guessing here since I don't work in the schedule planning area ...

 

[coolflyingfool]

I was kind of stunned that there were no new flights added to DEN, PIT, PHL. SWA has acquired addtional gates in DEN and PHL and could easily get more in PIT. SWA just acquired a 4th gate in DEN but will only have 20 flights as of March 5, with no other flights announced. SWA will have 10 gates, and I may be off by a gate or 2, in PHL and they are no where near capacity on those gates.

 

[corl737]

I was kind of stunned that there were no new flights added to DEN, PIT, PHL. SWA has acquired addtional gates in DEN and PHL and could easily get more in PIT. SWA just acquired a 4th gate in DEN but will only have 20 flights as of March 5, with no other flights announced. SWA will have 10 gates, and I may be off by a gate or 2, in PHL and they are no where near capacity on those gates.

Fortunately SWA is blessed with management that has the big picture. Just because they "can" do something isn't enough justification for doing it. I'm sure the gates you mention will get used in due course.

 

[Harold]

It's really great to see Southwest add new routes, and expand existing routes. Unless of course you are an SWA customer who out of Detroit which hasn't had a new destination added to the schedule so far in the 21st century.

The only logical explanation is that:
SWA IS TOTALLY SCARED OF AND INTIMIDATED BY NORTHWEST, and will never enter the MSP or MEM markets due to that reason.

I challenge anyone to prove that this statement is wrong, but you will need to explan why Southwest won't offer more than 18 departures per day, even though DTW is one of the 10 busiest airports in the US.

 

[corl737]

The only logical explanation is that:
SWA IS TOTALLY SCARED OF AND INTIMIDATED BY NORTHWEST, and will never enter the MSP or MEM markets due to that reason.

I challenge anyone to prove that this statement is wrong, but you will need to explan why Southwest won't offer more than 18 departures per day, even though DTW is one of the 10 busiest airports in the US.

"Never?"

Face it, Harold, one thing that SWA proves time and time again is that just because it "can" do something (like add more flights to DTW) doesn't mean it is the "best" decision when compared to other opportunities. SWA always seeks profits, not market share. When a new route out of DTW becomes the best use of a new airplane then you'll see it.

In fact, I'll reverse your challenge and ask YOU to prove that your theory of SWA being intimidated is correct!

 

[coolflyingfool]

PHX-DTW was added in the 21st Century.

 

[markkus757]

Herb knows why they don't do more in DTW and anything in MSP & MEM. Gary Kelly is changing things though - so what was, may be no longer...

 

[mga707]

PHX-DTW was added in the 21st Century.

RE-added. Was first flown in the 20th century (circa 1990), but dropped.

 

[dl764]

GREAT

 

[Harold]

I'll accept that reverse challenge, even though I don't have any concrete information to back it up. The SWA staff at DTW also confirm that more money is made on freight than passengers to/from DTW. My point is that SWA has been very aggressive about adding new routes from almost every location, and DTW is 1 of the locations that SWA has been dormant on route expansion, especially eastward. How can SWA expect to make more money at DTW if they won't spend more money there? Like they have almost everywhere else, unless SWA is afraid to compete with NWA.