It feels like an odd pairing.  DFW to the new Branson, MO airport on Sun Country which is a Minneapolis / St. Paul based airline.  Well, maybe.  maybe not.

First, Branson has a new airport about to open.  It is unique in that it is a private airport built with private money.  You can view its website HERE.  Or, rather, you can kind of view it.  It really isn’t working very well as a website.  Not today anyway.

Second, it does kind of make sense.  Sun Country will be flying Mon-Wed-Fri from MSP to Branson.  Then, it appears, it will use the same aircraft to fly the DFW / Branson segments as well.  That means high utilization for the aircraft.  From what I can see, the flight will travel MSP to Branson, Branson to DFW, DFW to Branson, Branson to MSP on those days. 

Sun Country already flies in and out of DFW (and not just to MSP) and already understands how to fly to leisure destinations.   There should be enough traffic from both the DFW and MSP areas to feed to Branson (a kind of mid-western Las Vegas show theatre town if you are unfamiliar with it) and it should be able to do so very competitively against the bus excursions that already exist.  You see, there was no close by airport for Branson until now.  Previously, it means flying very expensive commuter flights to places such as Joplin, Fort Smith, Springfield or Fayetteville and you *still* had at least a 2 hour drive by bus or car to get there.

Not anymore.  These flights should do well and I will note that AirTran is another airline that will be flying to this new destination and Sun Country also has just added flights from Boston to Branson (I’m a little skeptical of that one being successful.)  Branson is offering incentives to these airlines to start these flights in the hopes of jump starting more growth of their tourism industry.    So far, you have to give them high marks for targeting the right kind of areas and the right kind of airlines.  If they had asked American Airlines to serve the destination, it would have been done with old regional jet aircraft and at high prices.  Instead, they picked airlines that understood the leisure business.  I would not be surprised to learn of Allegiant starting flights into Branson as well.

What’s more, it will be done with mainline aircraft such as the Boeing 737, 717 and, if Allegiant jumps into the game, the MD-80.  All aircraft much more suited to the demographics of the typical Branson traveler.

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The Fort Worth Star Telegram’s aviation Blog, Sky Talk, writes about Delta beginning service from Dallas Love Field Airport to its Memphis, TN hub today.   The flights will be flown by Delta’s regional jet provider, Pinnacle Airlines, under the Delta Connection name.    They will start 3 daily flights on July 6 and use CRJ200 aircraft which are exempt under the Wrigth Amendment and Wright Agreement since they have less than 56 seats. 

It’s an interesting move for Delta and I do wonder how they identified that segment being of good potential.  Since it is a Delta hub (ex Northwest Airlines), it can provide connections to a wide variety of destinations but I’m not sure if the destinations are where the typical Dallas business traveler wants to go.

One thing is for sure.  If history is anything to go by, American Airlines may already be re-thinking its withdrawal from Love Field and trying to identify how to answer this challenge to its turf. 

I do wonder whose gates Delta is going to use.  Currently, AA and Continental hold the only usable gates in addition to Southwest’s.   Delta has not identified which gates it will use so far and American Airlines has said it has not negotiated any sub-leases either.  Continental perhaps?

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USA Today’s Today in the Sky Blog is reporting that Alaska Airlines has announced that it will begin charging a 1st bag checked fee on July 7th.  This announcement comes after reporting more losses for this past quarter. 

I remain adamantly against the 1st bag checked fees being charged but must admit that if an airline was going to do one, it should do one in the manner of Alaska Airlines.  Alaska Airlines is going to offer a guarantee that your bag will be at the carousel within 25 minutes of arrival or you receive $25 or 2500 frequent flier points. 

This allows Alaska Airlines to compete better against legacy airlines by bringing their bag fees inline with the rest of them but offer greater value in the process.  This is a guarantee that I suspect will net a real response for Alaska.   No other bag check fee offers such a guarantee at present.  To the contrary, all other airlines charging such fees continue to do so in light of rather severe delays and losses for baggage. 

This addition also finds Southwest Airlines, last of the real majors and borderline legacy airline, the lone standout for baggage fees.  Gary Kelly, CEO of SWA, was even badgered by financial analysts during a recent conference call to discuss the most recent quarterly reports to consider adding such fees.  Kelly has steadfastly refused so far claiming that Southwest sees this move as being a strong negative among its customer base.  I actually agree since their customers remain some of the most price sensitive in the market.

It also stands in contrast to Delta Airlines’ recent announcement of a $50 first bag checked fee for international flights.   A move that I predict will ultimately be rescinded due to competition from both US and foreign based international carriers.

The question is whether or not other airlines currently charging such fees will be willing to offer similar guarantees.  Since so few compete with Alaska Airlines right now, I suspect it will be resisted as competition.  However, I also believe that one or more legacy airlines in the US will now begin considering the introduction of such a guarantee in order to bolster their position against their competitors.  My pick?  Delta Airlines or Continental Airlines.

Delta has an executive team that is  well aware that the a la carte pricing model is successful but they are also the most cognizant of presenting real value for their product.  Continental Airlines could steal a lot of press and thunder by making such a guarantee and it would also align them more close to Alaska Airlines, an existing Continental code share partner.

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USA Today’s Today in the Sky Blog has written about American Airlines’ new 737-800.  Except, it isn’t new to the fleet.  AA has had quite a few 737-800 aircraft in the fleet for 10 years now.  What’s new is that they’ve started getting new deliveries and they’ve apparently found a way to reconfigure the aircraft for a total of 160 passengers (incuding Business Class) which is 12 more than their current configuration on the “old” aircraft.

So, how did they do that?  By using new seats and reconfiguring their gallies essentially.  What AA *claims* is that you, the passenger, will have just about as much room (31″ pitch so, no, not really) as what you might experience on a MD-80 aircraft (about 32″ and only a 1 in 5 chance of a middle seat versus a 2 in 6 chance).  Indeed, they suggest that you might be more comfortable with the new seating.

Maybe.  If you are young, slender and somewhat short in stature, I suspect they might be right.  If you are tall, older and heavier, I suspect you’re in for greater discomfort in the real world.   The seats are “slimmer” which means they’re a bit thinner both in their frame construction as well as their padding.  This means that for relatively svelt people, a change isn’t felt but for a man-sized, well, man, you’re probably gonna feel a harder, less comfortable seat.    In addition, the seats are a “cradle” type that is supposed to save the passengers knees behind you.   Maybe, just maybe that will happen.   I continue to call for reclining those 31″ pitch seats to be disabled.  They cause more hostility and problems than they offer in comfort. 

What really incenses me is the photo shown HERE on USA Today’s site.  Why?  Because it shows a svelt flight attendent sitting in an exit row seat.  Yeah, loads of room there.  What I would like to see is a 230lbs business man sitting in a conventional middle seat somewhere else on that aircraft.  Please take two photos: One distance shot and one of his face.  I want to know just how painful that seat is.

Here is an interesting fact:  When American Airlines had their More Room in Coach program going on, their 737-800 aircraft seated just 134 total people.  Now they’ve boosted that to 160 total seats.  I guarantee you that space was not carved out of Business Class so where did they achieve enough room to fit 26 more seats? 

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The Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog is reporting Southwest’s new announced NYC-La Guardia Airport Schedule.   As expected, there are no real surprises as to where they are flying and how often.  The only surprise is that they figured out how to add an eight slot pair to the seven they purchased for $7.5 million.

Simple.  They scheduled a flight *before* daily slot controls come into effect and one flight *after* daily slot controls end each day.  Southwest is already crowing that they are beginning to figure out how to game the system.  I wouldn’t necessarily pat myself on the back yet if I were them.

Where are they flying?  Chicago and Baltimore just as every person expected.  Both cities present opportunities for traffic originating in those cities as well as connecting traffic from still more cities.  However, Dallas does not find itself in a convenient position for traveling to La Guardia.  Under the present Wright Amendment rules, it will take 2 stops to get to New York City.  First, you have to fly from Dallas to a Wright Amendment destination (one of the contiguous states next to Texas or one of the legislated destinations such as Kansas City) and then from one of those cities, you’ll have to travel to Chicago or Baltimore where you will connect again to go onwards to New York City.

I don’t expect a lot of traffic originating from Dallas to NYC.  Not until the Wright Amendment expires and allows Southwest to operate like any other carrier in the United States. 

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The Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog is has a story about Continental reporting exceptionall dramatic declines in unit revenues over the past month.  This is, I believe, the third time Continental has reported rapidly declining unit revenues in the past few months. 

At first, one might question what is going on in the industry that shows one legacy airline reporting such poor numbers and there seems to be no similar dire reports from other legacy airlines.  Indeed, most others are meeting expectations (remember that expectations as domestic industry aren’t that high to begin with right now) and yet Continental seems to be struggling.  

After thinking about this for a couple of days, I think I might have realized what is going on here.  First, every airline earns its money from different hubs.  There are very few overlapping airline hubs in the US.  Continental has hubs in Houston, Newark and Cleveland, for instance.  American has their major hubs in Dallas and Chicago.   Delta has major domestic hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.  What this means is that each airline derives a good portion of its revenue in markets where they are dominant and if those markets are doing poorly, they will too.

Now, Continental has Newark and Houston to contend with and both of those areas are large banking and financial centers.  Both are suffering a little bit worse than many in this economy and I suspect that business travel has been reduced dramatically in those areas.  Business class travelers are downgrading to economy and economy fliers just aren’t getting their trips approved at all. 

So far, Chicago and Dallas have weathered this storm a little better than expected and I think both American Airlines and United Airlines are managing to maneuver just enough to continue to meet financial expectations.  Atlanta is also doing just a little bit better as is Minnesota which means Delta continues to have maneuvering room.  Delta is exposed in Detroit, however.  Their subisidiary, Northwest Airlines dominates all of Michigan and industries in that area are being heavily impacted by the economy. 

Continental has made its success story from providing excellent service to business travelers.  It was (and will be again one day) a successful strategy due to focusing on attracting full fare or near full fare passengers and they focused a lot less on chasing the lowest fare passengers.  With economizing being the watchword at every company, I suspect many of the usual passengers are either deferring travel or quite possibly moving it to LCC competitors of Continental. 

The key to Continental’s (and other airline suffering this kind of revenue problem) surviving is being able to weather the crisis while maintaining their superior service.  That becomes doubly difficult with no end in sight for this economic crisis.  However, their management team is extremely capable and very tuned in to the needs of an airline.  If there is a team that can manage this event, it is Continental’s. 

I continue to watch for signs that United is weakening more financially and, so far, there are very few public hints.  This strikes me as odd since United is a bit more exposed than most.  They have a generally less fuel efficient fleet, they are subject to more direct competition from both legacy carriers and LCC carriers at more of their hubs and they have what may well be the most acrimonious relationship with their labor of all the legacy carriers.   It makes me wonder what, if anything, they might be successfully concealing in their financial health. 

American Airlines is reporting numbers that suggest that they are struggling to maintain their cash reserves at this point.  They are, however, taking steps to reduce their costs by cutting their fleet numbers and renewing more of their fleet than originally planned.  However, they too, have bad relationships with their labor organizations.  In fact, every major union at AA is now actively lobbying for the opportunity to move closer to a strike.  There is not one word of any agreement on any contract issue and AA’s strategy appears to be delay, delay, delay.  At some point, you really do have to come to agreement with your unions and get on with other important management issues of the day.

I think Continental will recapture its regular business traveler as things improve.  They do too good a job of taking care of their customers at a competitive price.  Other airlines, however, may discover that their customers have found better options.  After all, if you are going to be abused, why not be abused for the lowest price possible?

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Southwest Airlines has added a new city to their route structure.  Minneapolis / St. Paul, initially having just one destination on Southwest to Chicago, will soon link up with Southwest large station in Denver.  It was announced on Southwest’s Blog, Nuts About Southwest, just yesterday and was woven into a brief April Fool’s day prank.

I would expect more cities over the next few months.  Connections to Detroit, Indianpolis, St. Louis are all possibilities.

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UPDATE:  This was an April Fool’s Day Joke.

Southwest Airlines has announced the creation of a new subsidiary airline tentatively named Atlantic Express which will serve routes between New York City and London.  The new subsidiary airline will be staffed by current Southwest Airlines crews and has placed an order with Boeing for new 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft. 

Southwest Airlines CEO and President Gary Kelly is quoted at the 9am news conference saying “We looked at every kind of aircraft we could use for this route but the only one that made sense is the 747-8i.  As most people know, we prefer new aircraft and our business model depends on both passenger volume and frequency.  We went to Boeing and negotiated for the best deal possible on 10 new Boeing 747-8i aircraft to serve this route.”

There has been frequent speculation on what cities Southwest would use to serve New York City’s La Guardia airport (Southwest obtained 7 slot pairs to operate at the airport just a few months ago) and it would appear the question is answered now.  Southwest will serve La Guardia once a day with flights from Chicago-Midway and Houston-Intercontinental feeding connecting traffic to 5 daily round trip flights to London-Heathrow airport. 

Southwest’s / Atlantic Express’ new New York City schedule and aircraft can be viewed HERE.

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The Detroit Free Press reports that the Northwest Airlines logos have been disappearing throughout Detroit Metro Airport this week.  Monday, employees began wearing the Delta Airlines uniform as well. 

The change at the Detroit hub for Northwest signals that Delta is proceeding according to plan in its merger with Northwest Airlines which was consummated just 5 months ago.  There are now 33 Northwest airplanes painted in Delta colors and Delta expects to have more than 250 repainted by the end of 2010.

For the time being, Northwest Airlines remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Airlines until the two airlines’ Certificates of Operations are merged.  This typically can take from 1 to 2 years to accomplish at it involves harmonizing a vast amount of policy and procedure when it comes to flight operations and maintenance.  So far, Delta has made quick progress with bringing the two operations together on a pace that is notably quicker than that of America West and US Airways.

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The CrankyFlier and the Delta blog have both alerted me to some new features coming on board with Delta.  Delta has added the ability to see status on upgrades and standby lists for flights to their main website and they intend to add these features very shortly to their mobile website for PDA Phone users.

Adding the ability to make these checks via cell phone or phone/PDA is a huge advancement for airlines and I suspect we’ll see more of these feature additions to most mainline airlines over the next year. 

For those of you interested in accessing Delta’s mobile site, you can go HERE for instructions.  I’ve already blogged about Continental Airlines’ system HERE.

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The Dallas Morning News is reporting that American Airlines has decided to close its operations at Dallas’ Love Field airport . . . again.   American has tried a number of different strategies at the airport including the most recent exercise of flying EMB-145 jets from DAL to ORD (Chicago).   By all reports, this latest strategy actually was successful but in a case of winning the battle and losing the war, those flights will now go away.

Why did they go away if successful?  Because they were only successful in a very small way.  AA never had much luck in operating any other flights from Dallas to other destinations including Austin, Kansas City or St. Louis.  They needed more than 6 successful round trip flights a day to make operating at Love Field a worthwhile enterprise.

Notably, AA has apparently signed a new long term lease that keeps keeps their 2 gates at Love Field in their hands.  Why sign a long term lease and then leave?  Because the brokered dissolution of the Wright Amendment gives 16 gates to Southwest and 2 each to American Airlines and Continental.  If AA were to give up those 2 gates, they would likely be snatched up by another low fare carrier to be used to further infiltrate AA’s routes.  My guess is that it is a blocking exercise.  Besides, they are valuable property and may offer AA the opportunity to sub-lease them to other airlines if they don’t use them.

Why didn’t AA stick with the Chicago flights?  Because while those flights were successful, they could only be flown with aircraft that have 56 seats or less (for now.)  That means that the only growth available was more frequency.  Airlines such as AA really can make much more profit by flying more capacity on such a route.  In other words, they could do much better if they were able to use MD-82 or Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the route.  They won’t be able to until 2014.

I would, however, speculate that AA could have made more money on this route using reconfigured CRJ-700 aircraft from American Eagle.  These aircraft could have been reconfigured with a business class and economy section down to 56 seats and probably flown much more profitably.  However, these aircraft probably don’t lend themselves to being reconfigured in such a way.  How do you efficiently place business class seating in an aircraft that is already limited to 2+2 seating in economy?

American is doing what is good for American.  However, what would be better for Dallas is another airline taking over and using those gates for a good purpose.  Yes, even Southwest Airlines could use a little competition these days.  Imagine jetBlue offering Austin / Dallas flights that connect back to the East coast through Austin.  Or how about Airtran connecting through Little Rock or Houston?

In the end, Love Field will not see much if any real competition develop.  Not while 3 very successful and very large airlines control all the gates there.

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Southwest Airlines started service between Minneapolis / St. Paul and Chicago today according to the Minneapolis / St. Paul StarTribune.  The newspaper reports that Southwest managed to kick off the new service with their trademark attention to customers.  Passenger Service Agents even managed to get their first customers to sing a song before boarding.

This marks Southwest’s first of several new routes for this year into new markets.  New York City (La Guardia) and Boston Logan are the next to receive Southwest routes. 

For now, Southwest will be linking MSP to Chicago only but I do foresee them adding routes to other Southwest focus cities such as Denver, St. Louis, Indianapolis or Detroit.  Typically, Northwest Airlines fights back against intruders on their mainstay routes but with the takeover by Delta, one wonders if their is enough attention being paid to the new competition versus integrating the operations.  Other airlines have entered the Chicago / MSP route and left it months later badly bruised from fare wars instituted by the dominant three legacy carriers at the two airports, Northwest Airlines, United and American Airlines.

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Delta has now made it possible to link your Delta SkyMiles account to your Northwest WorldPerks account and use your miles in a combined fashion.  What’s more, they’re offering you 500 miles to do it right now.  Their message reads:

Link Your SkyMiles and WorldPerks Accounts

When you link your Northwest WorldPerks account with your Delta
SkyMiles account you can combine your miles immediately to redeem for
mileage upgrades, Award Travel, and even shopping. Enjoy the benefits
of both programs, even before they’re fully integrated.  Plus, linking
accounts now will enable automatic consolidation of your account
history, including Elite qualification balances, when the programs
merge later this year.

Two simple steps to faster rewards:
1. Validate account numbers and PINs.
You’ll enter both your WorldPerks and your SkyMiles account numbers
and PINs for authentication.
2. Link accounts, transfer miles.
After linking your accounts, you can begin to transfer miles from one
account to the other. You may transfer as many miles as you want in
either direction–as many times as you want–as long as the miles are
there to transfer.

Or you may choose to only link your accounts and not transfer your
miles at this time. You can return at any time to transfer miles
between accounts.

Link your accounts and transfer your miles before April 15, 2009 and
earn 500 bonus miles in your SkyMiles account. Refer to the terms and
conditions for complete details.

 

One thing does occur to me:  There is probably very little overlap between the two customer bases relatively speaking.  Their networks serve different hubs in pretty different geographic locations.  No doubt there is some overlap but probably not as much as we might imagine between an AA / United linkup.

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It’s still slow in the news of airlines but I have some ideas for articles to come soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would post THIS link to a Boeing 707.  The aircraft is in a park in Ho Chi Minh (ex-Saigon) and somewhat near the airport.  It’s supposed to be an aircraft originally owned and operated by South African Airways that was later sold to Vietnam Airlines.

The view from Google is just entertaining. 

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In some ways, it was almost inevitable that Mr. Sullenbeger would damage his image, at least in my eyes.   Fox News has this story where the US Airways captain claims he has to work a 2nd job and 7 days a week to maintain a “middle class” lifestyle. 

Now, it is well known that US Airways (East) pilots have taken several cuts in pay and a hit on their pension over the past several years.  There is no argument that being a captain at US Airways no longer is quite the lucrative job it once was.  However, a senior pilot, a senior captain such as Chesley Sullenberger is only struggling to be “middle class” if he’s a fool with his money. 

Let’s take a look at the pay for a senior (such as Captain Sullenberger) captain at US Airways under the “EAST” (or original US Air) contract.  Captain Sullenberger is earning well in excess of $120 / hour as an A320 captain.  Taking a look at United Airlines, their compensation is just over $130 / hour for the same senior captain flying the same aircraft. 

The captain would argue that while that hourly seems high, there are many hours worked for which they don’t get paid.  And I agree.  Let’s say Captain Sullenberger has 6 flight hours on a particular day.  That works out to $750 for that day’s work.  If he flew 6 flight hours, he probably has about 10 hours of what we would consider real work time.  So, $750 / 10 is equal to $75 / hour in “real” pay.  If Captain Sullenberger is working 85 flight hours per month (and about 120 hours of “real” time per month), then he’s earning a base annual salary of about $127, 500 not including health and other benefits.   The truth is, Captain Sullenberger is probably earning a bit more than that annually if he schedules himself for good trips.  Call it about $140,000 / year not including health and other benefits.

So, Captain Sullenberger is probably flying about 1080 flight hours per year and  experiencing about 1512 “real work hours” per year.  The average full time employee in the United States works about 2000 hours per year and has a medium income of less than half of Captain Sullenberger’s salary, enjoys no pension although perhaps a 401(k) and medical insurance that wouldn’t approach Captain Sullenberger’s medical benefits. 

Somehow, I don’t feel sorry for Captain Sullenberger’s misery in maintaining his “middle class” lifestyle.   We all have been hurt in our retirements.  We all make investments in our education and career and few of us experience the kind of job security that a senior US Airways captain enjoys even today.   And to portray oneself as “struggling” with such pay and a need to have a 2nd job is a bit insulting to a great majority of Americans who are truly struggling to maintain any lifestyle.

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Update:  BBC reports that the flight number of this aircraft was TK Flight 1951.

CNN is reporting that a Turkish Airlines 737-800 crashed while on approach to land at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport.  The plane broke or cracked into 3 distinct pieces after coming down in a farmer’s field near the airport. 

9 people are reported dead and as many as 50 people are reportedly injured.  The flight was carrying 127 passengers and 7 crew members.  At this time, there is little or no speculation on what may have caused this accident.

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CNN is reporting that US Airways has dropped its beverage (non-alcoholic) charge for coach passengers citing negative perceptions of its brand. While i did think it reflected negatively on US Airways, I am, to some degree, surprised that they dropped the charge. 

This charge has been in place for quite a long time and while other airlines declined to adopt it, it had been reported that US Airways’ a la carte pricing was working well and that presumably included the beverage charge.  It was a bit of an extreme in the airline world to charge for things such as soda, water and coffee but there had been numerous reports that it was also working acceptably well.   Some reports portrayed it as reducing workload for US Airways flight crew and that most passengers had accepted it with little reaction.

I can only conclude that US Airways has made this decision as a result of evidence that it was affecting their bookings in some way.  Indeed, for those business travelers now relegated to traveling in economy, it may well have been responsible for driving decisions on who to fly when a choice presented itself. 

However, I don’t think this spells the end of a la carte pricing among the airlines.  A way to manage revenue and improve profitability has revealed itself and airlines will continue to avail themselves of it in the future.  Airlines will probably adjust their pricing according to market conditions but expect things like luggage fees and blankets for sale to continue.

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First, let me apologize for the dead silence on the blog.  I’ve been very ill and way overtaxed at my day job for the past week.  I feel better and my work load is manageable again.

Southwest Airlines has announced in fairly quick succession service into 3 airports that, traditionally, Southwest has not wanted to fly to.  Minneapolis / St. Paul, New York La Guardia and now Boston’s Logan airport.  Southwest purists are no doubt predicting Southwest’s demise and Southwest fans are no doubt cheering Southwest’s cheekiness. 

The fact of the matter is that Southwest is evolving again.  Like every other successful airline, Southwest has evolved at important moments in the airline business.  Oddly enough, Southwest really started out as more of a businessman’s airline than anything else in the early 1970’s.  It served the Texas businessman with routes to Texas’ major cities with high frequency and low fares.  By basing themselves at inner city airports (in Houston and Dallas anyway), they made themselves more convenient for those travelers.

Then they evolved to a regional airline serving more than just businessmen but also increasing their market share by becoming attractive to the people who wouldn’t have flown but for Southwest’s low fares.  They became the Low Fare airline through the 1980’s. 

Then in the 1990’s, they began to evolve again.  This time they became the continental airline.  A low fare but not Low Fare airline that instituted service to major and minor cities throughout the US that were underserved with low fares.  This saw growth on both coasts of the United States and mid-west.

Well, the airline industry, for Southwest anyway, has changed again and instead of ignoring those changes, Southwest has clearly decided to evolve once more.  Mind you, I don’t know if this next evolution will be successful.  Only time will tell.  But it shows that Southwest is indeed paying attention to its business.

This next evolution is really about the business traveler.  It doesn’t mean Southwest is giving up on being a low fare airline.  It means that Southwest recognizes that in order to grow its business, it is time to serve new(er) demographics such as the business traveler (again) and the markets those travelers want to fly to.

This was first evidence by Southwest remarketing its same day fares as a kind of Business Class fare.  Smart because that really is what they are.  Then they began to rework their gates at various airports to better serve that business traveler by offering outlets to plug laptops and cell phones into, offering better and more comfortable seating and some variation on priority boarding. 

Now I think Southwest is identifying important markets that their loyal business travelers need to access.  Their Mid-Atlantic customers need to get to places like New York City and Boston.  Their Mid-Western customers need to get to places such as Minneapolis / St. Paul and Denver.   So Southwest has began working to serve those markets.

There is one glaring omission so far and that is Atlanta.   Most pundits believe that Southwest will never enter the market fearing Delta and Airtran’s response.   While I agree that the reaction by those two airlines will be fierce, I also think it is inevitable that Southwest find a way to fly there some day soon.  Will it be a focus city?  No, probably not. 

It is the most important city in the Southeast that so far goes unserved by Southwest.  With a strong customer base in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Lousiana, Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, of course they need to find a way into Atlanta.

And they will.  It won’t be a big start.  Just as Boston, La Guardia and Minneapolis / St. Paul have all been announced as very small operations, so will Atlanta.  But Southwest will find a way to connect Atlanta to their focus city system in short order and begin serving those routes for their business customers. 

There are a few other cities I’m looking at for Southwest service in the next couple of years.  Charlotte, North Carolina would be a good destination and so would Colombia, Greenville and Charleston South Carolina.  Milwaukee, Wiscsonsin should become attractive too.  Why?  Because they have important routes to places like Minneapolis, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and into other parts of their network.

Southwest isn’t crazy.  They aren’t desperate and they aren’t misguided.  Gary Kelly, the new CEO isn’t behaving stupid or incautious.  Southwest is simply evolving again.  With each evolution, there comes risk but to Southwest’s credit, they have identified where they can grow effectively and they’ve even recognized the risks and challenges involved.  They feel prepared to take on those risks and challenges and I suspect they are ready.

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Passur, a company that does aircraft and airport real time tracking, has created a simulation of US Airways Flight 1549.  It really is stunning.  You can see it HERE.

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Happy Birthday 747

photo credit: Boeing photo 

Today is the Boeing 747’s 40th Birthday. Or, at least, I count it as such since today marks 40 years since the legendary jumbo jet took its first flight.

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