Things in the Sky

Not that I think it’s a bad idea, but I was just surprised. Based on Southwest’s recent actions I was expecting another major city (I was thinking the next city would be Atlanta). But, alas, Gary Kelly announced the service during yesterday’s shareholder’s meeting, and you can see a blog entry here.

What’s annoying is that Southwest didn’t release any details about where the airline would fly out of MKE. As Cranky noted when the carrier announced Boston, this seems to be Southwest’s habit lately. In my opinion, it’s just plain annoying. If an airline is going to tack on a new city to its route map, it should tell its customers where it’s going to fly right away. Period. Anyway…

At first glance, this move can make it seem like Southwest has AirTran and Midwest in its crosshairs. Frankly, it’s hard to tell until Southwest announces its service, but I think it could be possible, as the official press release says the carrier will “offer multiple destinations from the airport of choice for business and leisure travelers.” That’s pretty darn ambiguous. But, I would expect service to a couple of focus cities (BWI, DEN, PHX, and LAS come to mind as possibilities.) For leisure routes, some of the Florida markets could work.

But, we’ll get a better idea once Southwest tells us where they’ll be flying from MKE. If it’s a few flights just focus cities, then Southwest is just “plugging in” MKE to the rest of the system. If we see a good number of routes, then I think it’s safe to say that Southwest is looking to steal a good number of passengers from other carriers. Nevertheless, I have to think that Southwest is a bit limited in terms of growth because Southwest has been adding these new cities without growing the fleet.

Nevertheless, this could get interesting depending on what Southwest does here. AirTran has built up its presence after not buying Midwest, which has cut a great deal of service but has built up a partnership with Delta/Northwest. This could just shake up things further.

Speaking or AirTran, the carrier issued a press release yesterday entitled “AirTran Airways Continues Rapid Expansion at General Mitchell International Airport.” Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with the Southwest announcement!