For the first time since 1998, AirTran will be serving Des Moines – that city was announced with the SkyWest announcement from a couple of weeks ago, but AirTran said on Friday that they would start service to Orlando with service starting March 6. The service will be operated with 717 aircraft. What’s interesting is the competition with Allegiant in the market, and the potential advantage that AirTran might have thanks to SkyWest.
Photo credit: Chris Weyer.
This announcement goes along with AirTran’s recent moves. A recent Allegiant investor presentation noted that there are only three routes out of Orlando that have competition – Allentown, Knoxville, and Lexington. AirTran is the competitor on all three of the routes – and all of those cities have been announced by AirTran this year.
So what makes Des Moines interesting? Well, AirTran is only sending its own jets up there on the weekends, with one flight each day. But, SkyWest will be flying to Milwaukee three times a day, which opens up some connecting opportunities to Orlando (and other markets, of course). So, Orlando-bound AirTran passengers have options every day of the week. Allegiant’s frequencies on the route varies from two to four times a week over the next couple of months. That gives AirTran an advantage in the market, I think. And the fact that SkyWest is assuming all the risk of its Milwaukee flying just sweetens the deal.
It will certainly be interesting to see how this works out. Meanwhile, it shows how AirTran is developing its Milwaukee hub.
So AirTran or someone flying for them doesn’t have any flights to Des Moines out of Atlanta?
Nope. Just MCO and MKE, which I think shows the growing importance of MKE. But some of the other cities mentioned in the post only have Florida service from AirTran.