It came out yesterday that Southwest will purchase the remaining assets of ATA Airlines as a way to acquire the airline’s slots at LaGuardia. The press release was sent out today. 14 slots are involved in the deal (7 roundtrips). So, this plan seems to be (at first) a lot like the move into MSP – a relatively small operation (at first), but nevertheless it adds a new dot to the Southwest route map.
I think this is a great move for Southwest, and it certainly is a big step for them. I’ve felt that their attempts to attract more business passengers have been good efforts, not having New York in the system is a bit hole.
I was talking with one of my friends about the move, and we were trying to figure out what routes would get service, and we both agreed on Midway. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the flights ended up being Midway flights because of the relatively low number of flights. But we did talk about some other cities.
Phoenix and Vegas are out of the question (for now) because of the perimeter rule. We thought that Philadelphia and Baltimore were too close. While Florida is an option, those routes seem to be covered pretty well by AirTran and JetBlue. We did think a good hub connection could be Nashville.
Well, like I said, this is a big step for Southwest. The deal has to be figured out in bankruptcy court now. Hopefully soon we will see when Southwest will start service.
Minutes before I posted, I got an e-mail from Southwest with a link to the blog post about this by Schedule Planner Bill Owen, which I also think is worth a look.
I hope that Southwest advertises this. As you said, some business travelers steer away from Southwest because of their big whole in their route map. They need to get word out!