Why Won't Southwest Expand Service To/from Detroit

[Harold]

While Southwest can't expand fast enough at Midway, Philadelphia, and BWI, there is no interest in adding more than 18 weekday departures from Detroit. Southwest claims they make more money shipping freight from Detroit than passengers, but how can they make money with non-stops to only Midway (8), St. Louis (5), Nashville (3), and Pheonix (2). A trip to any city on the east coast or Florida means a connection at (260 miles west) Midway. There has been a rumor for several years of a Midway/Detroit/BWI route, but it has never been seriously considered according to a letter I received from PR supervisor in Dallas.
Many employees in other cities feel that morale in Detroit is the worst anywhere in the company. A long time employee in Detroit told me that management in Dallas is 'intimidated' by Northwest, and 'afraid' that if Southwest adds new service to Detroit that Northwest will 'punish' Southwest with very cheap fares to/from Chicago.
But so many people in Michigan loathe Minneapolis based North-worst, which dominates the hub with over 80% of all departures, that any new choices and competition would be welcomed even at a higher cost.
Does anyone else who frequently flies from Detroit feel this way? What are the chances of Southwest expanding service from Detroit, especially to an eastern destination? Comments, anyone.

 

[ELP_WN_Psgr]

I don't have any certain knowledge, but here are a few theories.

Southwest may feel, to a certain extent, betrayed by the city of Detrot. Southwest served Detroit City Airport (DET) and had been promised a goodly number of improvements to the terminal and airport facility...which never did materialize.

Southwest is probably not overwhelmingly afraid of Northwest, but sees USAirways as a much weaker competitor. If you are a shark...you try to eat the crippled sea lion instead of the fairly kealthy killer whale. Southwest can prevail in any sort of fare war launched by anyone. It would make sense that NW is capable of enduring a fare war for a much longer period of time than USAirways.

Southwest does okay running out of Detroit....but maybe they feel like the customers there are more addicted to the NW FF program. I'm quite sure that Southwest's market planning is not done by using a dartboard or a magic 8 ball. I would think they choose to put their aircraft places that the aircraft can make the most money.

If Wright is repealed, then I would predict that Southwest will continue to keep Detroit on hold and expand vigorously in Dallas....although that scenario could very easily put Southwest in Memphis.

 

[mga707]

I don't have any certain knowledge, but here are a few theories.

Southwest may feel, to a certain extent, betrayed by the city of Detrot. Southwest served Detroit City Airport (DET) and had been promised a goodly number of improvements to the terminal and airport facility...which never did materialize.

Agree. If the city had kept their promises, DET would today be a thriving mini-MDW with a lot of Herb flights. Maybe even ProAir would still be around, as the "Southwest Effect" would've grown the market.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Didn't SW have more-or-less hourly service from DET to MDW when they started service there in the (mid or late) 1980's? I somewhat recall the advertising blitz when SW started service to Detroit about their frequent and cheap flights to Chicago. At that time the jingle was that flying SW was like using the company plane.

As for expanding, I thought a reason that SW did not have more flights out of DTW is because of a lack of gate space? (That is prior to NW opening their new World Gateway /Macnamara terminal at DTW). As for why SW doesn't expand out of DTW now I would guess that they have more profitable routes to fly - although DTW-BWI would be nice.

I don't know how addicted people in the motor city area are to NW FF program. Myself, I've used both SW (DTW-MDW-BWI) and NW ('spoke'- DTW-DCA) as well as AA and EA (remember them?). I will say that the NW's DTW terminal is very nice, it may make some folks reconsider flying NW via DTW.

 

[coolflyingfool]

I would think that 3 DTW-BWI and 1 DTW-LAS would be in order some time in the near future. Southwest is not afraid of NWA, in my belief, but sometimes it sure does seem that way. I would also think that LAX could get a nonstop. Just my thoughts.......

 

[mga707]

Didn't SW have more-or-less hourly service from DET to MDW when they started service there in the (mid or late) 1980's?  I somewhat recall the advertising blitz when SW started service to Detroit about their frequent and cheap flights to Chicago.  At that time the jingle was that flying SW was like using the company plane.

Checking the archives:

Southwest began flying to DTW on 6/4/87 with 12 daily MDW flights--pretty close to hourly. "The Company Plane" was indeed their ad slogan at the time. During the following year they added flights to STL and a nonstop to MCI, which was later dropped in favor of PHX.
Just over a year later--7/6/88--they started DET flights, while continuing service from DTW as well. Initial DET service consisted of MDW(x8), BNA(x2), and STL(x3).
When DET started DTW dropped down to 6 MDW flights, plus one PHX flight. STL moved over to DET completely, while the BNA service was new.
DET service ended in Sept of 93. the last timetable with DET service (7/6/93) lists 9 MDW and 6 STL flights. In that same schedule DTW had 6 MDW flights only.
The 9/15/93 timetable, with DET ended, shows 10 MDW flights, and the 6 STL trips moved over to DTW.

 

[Harold]

During the early 90's, I was a regular flyer from Detroit-City to Midway, and I loved flying from both mini-airports. But the Detroit politicians made a lot of false promises to Southwest about improvements to City Airport, especially about extending the runways. Most of a 100 year old cemetary must be paved over in order to extend the main runway at Detroit-City for any distance.
My last trip out of Detroit-City in July/93 was on a Friday afternoon with the temperature somewhere between 95F and 100F. "Sware To God True Story": There were several Southwest management personel at the gates using calculators to figure out what the maximum passenger load would be for a safe takeoff. Then asking for a certain number of passengers to voluntarily not board to ensure a safe takeoff. This announcement made a large number of people head to their cars to drive to DTW. In Sept/93, Southwest pulled out of Detroit-City without any advance announcement on a Sunday night and then honored all DET reservations from DTW. Southwest later told the media that the City of Detroit failed to meet it's agreed obiligations, so the lease was terminated. I'm convinced that planes taking off only half full on those hot days for safety reasons was a major factor in that quick decision. Up until then, Southwest had a really good deal going at Detroit-City.
But I don't think that Southwest pulling out of DET in '93 impacts the amount of service from DTW today, since DET is owned by the City of Detroit and DTW is owned by Wayne County.
It doesn't make any sense why Southwest won't fly to eastern destinations from Detroit. There has to be a reason that's a well kept secret.