NEW CITY: BOSTON

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Here's the story from the Boston Globe.

So let the route speculation begin already. MDW and BWI right away, maybe PHX?

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/20...oming_to_logan/


okay i say 4X MDW, (with countless ability to have through flights access to the whole system)
4XBWI OR PHL, (yes i say PHL....WN will create its own Shuttle if you will....BOS, PHL, LGA? watch out Amtrak and US)
2xMCO (continue service to FLL and RSW)

no long hauls why do one to LAS and tie up an A/C for 5 hours when you can do three BOS-PHL runs same time? no i say no to LAS and PHX
 
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i doubt it is directed at any one particular airline.. It is a means to gain more revenue. WN is tapped out on its current cities and city-pairs. Entering BOS in just another way to aquire more business, not just to stick it to another carrier. BOS in the most balanced airport in the country with each carrier accounting for 10-15% of the market share.
 
MDW (obvious choice)

BWI (same story)

PHL (I agree with the "WN shuttle" theory posted earlier)

Hail Marys:

ISP

MSP (when service there starts)

LGA (" ")
 
Service begins August 16, 2009 per the employee website with 5xMDW and 5xBWI.

On a hunch, I went to southwest.com and looked at the pdf schedules. There's not a link for BOS, but every other city has pdf schedules that extend out to 10/30/2009. So I looked at MDW and BWI for 09/08/2009 through 10/30/2009 and the times of the BOS flights were listed.

From BWI schedules

BWI-BOS

06:40 - 07:55
09:45 - 11:10
13:40 - 14:55
16:45 - 18:10
20:30 - 21:45

BOS-BWI

06:30 - 08:05
10:00 - 11:25
13:05 - 14:35
16:10 - 17:45
19:10 - 20:45

From the MDW schedules

MDW-BOS

06:25 - 09:35
09:30 - 12:40
12:35 - 15:45
15:25 - 18:45
19:25 - 22:40

BOS-MDW

06:00 - 07:40
08:20 - 09:55
11:40 - 13:15
15:25 - 17:05
18:35 - 20:25
 
Gates are in the International Terminal "E", 1A and 1B.

Looking at the map, there's some food and Starbucks across from main security, but there's a security right in front of the new gates!! Nice!! AND a Java Coast (am I a little too focused??)
 
I don't think BOS service will cannibalize service at PVD or MHT, but rather complement it.

In a Boston Globe article, Garry Kelly said (emphasis added)

"We've been wanting to come to Boston for a while because we found that we weren't really luring big numbers of passengers from the central Boston area to Manchester and Providence,"

While it's true that PVD will lose 2 daily departures and MHT will lose 3 when the new BOS service starts, just about every other WN city is losing a flight or two as well. And opening up SFO definitely shifted some flights away from OAK, but I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing. OAK was overcrowded as it was. If you look at the Southwest Top 10 cities list as of December 8, 2008 WN was still operating 134 daily flights out of 13 gates and that's after a lot of flights moved over to SFO. By Sept 2009, OAK will be down to 114 daily departures which gives them some breathing room.

So does everyone think BOS will be the last new city for 2009? Terry Maxon of the Dallas Morning News asked Gary Kelly about that recently, fully expecting the answer to be "yes," but Kelly responded (emphasis mine)

"We are interested in growing our route network. We are continuing to evaluate new city opportunities. There are a lot of cities that we don't serve. I will certainly admit that we're continuing to research very seriously all of those opportunities.

"I think we've shown in 2009 that we can grow, even in this tough environment. So no, I'm not ready to say that Boston will be the last new city, but we haven't made that decision yet."

Historically, there have been other years when WN opened more than 3 cities.

WN added 4 new cities in 1996.

TPA and FLL both opened on 01-22-1996, MCO opened on 04-07-1996 and PVD opened 10-27 1996.

In 1977, WN opened 5 new cities. CRP (03-01-1977); LBB & MAF (both on 05-20-1977); ELP (06-30-1977) and AUS (09-15-1977)

In 1982, WN opened 6 new cities. LAS, PHX and SAN all opened 01-31-1982; MCI opened on 02-18-1982; LAX opened 09-18-1982 and SFO opened on 10-31-1982.

In 1994, there were 7 new cities added, but 6 of them (PDX, SEA, GEG, BOI, SLC and TUS) were existing Morris Air Cities which were merged into WN's system. The other city was SNA.

I think a 4th city for 2009 is the best we could hope for, but that's certainly not guaranteed.
 
I don't think BOS will cannibalize MHT or PVD either. Nor will LGA affect ISP. The "Southwest Effect" will help generate new customers for WN (and those lower fares will help generate new customers for everyone else also).
 
LoneStar-

Concerning a 4th city, 1. I would hope for and 2. I don't doubt it.

The new DL has a problem in my eyes. They have 3 midwest hubs, DTW, MSP and CVG. MSP and the state of MN is miffed that they bailed out NW with a loan and tax breaks in return for promise's to keep the company based in MN. After legal wrangeling and getting the new DL based in ATL, I would not be surprised to learn that MSP was offering some mighty good incentives to a stable carrier to come in and set up shop in MSP.

The states of MN, MI and OH have all voiced concerned that DL will not need to maintain 3 midwest hubs and are wondering where the cuts will come. DL has converted CVG mostly into their commuter hub. Since WN is already in DTW and now MSP, I'm wondering if CVG is next dot in the system.
 

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