To be morbid, they probably don't plan on competing with US on the route forever (or for any protracted period of time).
I think that is an accurate statement. Even if USAirways does survive, I don't think WN expects them to be a long term factor in the PHL-PIT O&D market.
While I respect ELP_WN_Psgr's information (which is usually spot-on), I'm suprised that PHL is in the first round of cities. Or even the second.
I'm flattered that some folks appreciate my opinionology. Now if i could just talk some sense into Art.......he could even check bags thru PHL which he states (in another thread) that he is afraid to do on his carrier of choice.
Here's the real deal.
Southwest is not Airtran. Southwest has the staying power to sit there and run 20 trips a day between PHL and PIT empty if they so chose. It won;t come to that...but they aren;t as close to the edge as the good folks from Atlanta.
Southwest mastered something a long time ago between DAL-HOU-HRL and LBB-HOU-DAL and DAL-HOU-MSY and HOU-MSY-MCO. What they mastered is called the one stop, or thru flight if you prefer.
You can bet that most everything running PHL-PIT will initially have another leg on it.
What that means is they don't have to subsist solely on local traffic. Thrus can do you a lot of good and allow you some frequency.
Let's be honest about it......a year ago at this time, if I had told you that PHL-PVD would go from 100 psgrs a day to 1,093 and Southwest would be carrying 64% of them, would you have believed me?
If I had told you Manchester would go from 87 passengers a day to 950 and WN with a 64% market share would you have had me committed.
The same thing will happen between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Right now it is a 422 passenger per day market. In a year it will be somewhere between 2600 and 3200 passengers a day and Southwest will be carrying 55% or so.
Southwest, much to the chagrin of the legacy carriers, really does offer a good product. Pretending it isn't is a sure fire way to head to the poorhouse. And if their product is good in one area more than all others, it is the 1 hour commuter type flight. Up in the morning and back that evening. They've only gotten it down to a high art form out here in the hinterlands for the last 34 years.
But to answer the earlier poster's question.....they will do it because they aren't Airtran. And it is going to happen. That market will expand so much that USAirways will still be carrying lots of folks......it will just so happen that Southwest carries more.