Atlanta: Southwest's next top city?

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Atlanta: Southwest's next top city?
October 29, 2010
By Ben Mutzabaugh
USA Today

Atlanta has long been one of the most glaring omissions from Southwest's route network. But now one official at the airline say it could soon be the carrier's busiest city.

"It could turn out to be that Atlanta is the largest city in the Southwest network in a reasonable amount of time," Bob Jordan, Southwest's executive vice president of strategy and planning, is quoted as saying by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That would come, of course, after Southwest completes its acquisition of AirTran, which has its largest hub at Atlanta. The merger still must be approved by shareholders and regulators, though neither is thought likely to thwart the merger.

Jordan adds he thinks -- eventually -- Southwest could add "well more than the 202" daily flights currently on AirTran's Atlanta schedule. The Associated Press writes Jordan said "Southwest will augment AirTran's Atlanta service with flights to 20 or more cities where AirTran doesn't fly." Presumably, that would include multiple daily flights on each of those routes.

The Journal-Constitution notes "Las Vegas is now Southwest's biggest city, with 224 daily flights. But even if Southwest adds enough flights to make Atlanta its largest operation, it might still not be as big as AirTran was before cutbacks [in Atlanta] in 2008."

Either way, AP writes Southwest CEO Garry Kelly "was bit more guarded" about Atlanta. Kelly is quoted by the news agency as saying he wasn't ready to predict that Atlanta will surpass Las Vegas and Chicago on the Southwest schedule, though he added: "I think that's a fair guess."

However, there are some skeptics on the idea of Southwest growing so rapidly in Atlanta. One of those is analyst Mike Boyd.

The Dallas Morning News writes: "Speaking at his Boyd Group International's annual outlook conference, Boyd scoffed at suggestions that the arrival of Southwest would force Delta into widespread fare-cutting in order to compete."

"I give them [Southwest] much credit. But the fact is we've already had the AirTran effect," he's quoted as saying by the Morning News.

In other announcements made by Southwest Thursday, the carrier announced it would begin its long-discussed codesharing partnership with Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris. Ticket sales will begin Nov. 12 for travel starting Dec. 1.

The Dallas Morning News reports "the agreement will bring Southwest customers from the United States to Cancun, Guadalajara, Morelia, Toluca/Mexico City, and Zacatecas through the Southwest/Volaris connect points at LAX, Oakland and San Jose." Connecting options from other cities will be phased in.

Southwest also announced its first routes from Newark, saying it planned to add six daily round-trip flights to Chicago Midway and two to St. Louis beginning March 27.

"This is about suits, not jeans," Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst with Forrester Research, tells the Chicago Tribune. "They are clearly going after the bread and butter of American and Continental/United in this market. They are very much laying down the gauntlet trying to go after the business traveler."