SCHEDULE EXTENDED—NOW ACCEPTING BOOKINGS THROUGH SEPTEMBER 28, 2012!

[Bill]

Today, we put out the Southwest and AirTran schedules for sale from August 12 through September 28, 2012.  And if you thought some of the previous schedule changes I’ve walked you guys through have been complex…stand by for a NEW standard of complexity!  Conversion, network harmonization, market changes, and a smaller schedule design that reflects the normal Customer demand changes coming out of what looks like a very busy Summer—our August and September schedules have it all.  Both networks were created using our unique schedule optimization process, so we have lots of territory to cover.  Let’s get started!

Starting with the Southwest side, we’re adding new nonstop service in nine roundtrip markets.  We’ll begin three weekday roundtrip flights between both Atlanta and Norfolk and between Atlanta and Louisville (note:  these are not markets currently served by AirTran), as well as two weekday roundtrip flights between both St. Louis and New York/LaGuardia and between St. Louis and San Antonio.  With the additional flights, our daily departure count from St. Louis is up to 90, which I believe is a new record!  As we continue the conversion of AirTran service and aircraft to the Southwest brand (after receiving a Single Operating Certificate), we’ll begin new nonstop SWA service that replaces existing service operated by AirTran between:

• Atlanta-Seattle/Tacoma:  one daily roundtrip
• Denver-New York/LaGuardia:  two daily roundtrips
• Los Angeles-Milwaukee:  two daily roundtrips
• Milwaukee-New York/LaGuardia:  two daily roundtrips (three additional remain on AirTran)
• Milwaukee-Seattle/Tacoma:  one daily roundtrip

Southwest will also add two more flights between Atlanta and Los Angeles, which will replace two AirTran flights.  Milestones abound in this schedule, but one is particularly noteworthy:  this marks our very first full city conversion, as Southwest will completely assimilate all AirTran service effective with this August ’12 schedule!

Across the rest of the Southwest network, the total number of weekday departures declines from our summer high of 3,422 to 3,250, with a flat aircraft count.  While we increase frequency in seven roundtrip markets (in addition to the Atlanta-Los Angeles increase mentioned above), we’ll reduce nonstop service in 88 roundtrip markets from their summertime highs.  We eliminate nonstop service in 11 roundtrip markets—some seasonal, some covered by existing AirTran service, and some that are simply no longer profitable in this high-cost environment.  The nonstop markets being eliminated are:

• Albuquerque-Lubbock
• Albuquerque-Midland/Odessa
• Albuquerque-Orlando
• Baltimore/Washington-Seattle/Tacoma (seasonal)
• Ft. Lauderdale-Kansas City (seasonal)
• Houston/Hobby-Seattle/Tacoma (seasonal)
• Indianapolis-Orlando (service remains on AirTran)
• Jackson-Orlando
• Jacksonville-Tampa Bay
• Milwaukee-Tampa Bay (seasonal—service remains on AirTran)
• San Diego-St. Louis (seasonal)

AirTran’s new August/September 2012 Schedule contains a pretty complex set of changes as well.  Just like in the Southwest schedule, AirTran’s new schedule reflects the seasonal softening of Customer demand as well as the need to “free up” aircraft to go through the conversion process, so we’ll decrease systemwide daily departures from 680 on a typical Friday to 568, a reduction of 112.  In addition to the market eliminations announced Friday here as well as the AirTran-to-Southwest conversions listed above, we’re adjusting frequencies upwards in seven markets and downwards in 25 others.  Seasonal summer nonstop service in the following 11 markets will be cancelled, although connecting service will continue to be available on either AirTran or Southwest:

• Baltimore/Washington-Ft. Myers
• Baltimore/Washington-New Orleans
• Baltimore/Washington-San Francisco
• Baltimore/Washington-Seattle/Tacoma
• Charlotte-Orlando
• Columbus-Ft. Lauderdale
• Flint-Tampa Bay
• Ft. Lauderdale-Indianapolis
• Grand Rapids-Orlando
• Grand Rapids-Tampa Bay
• Rochester-Tampa Bay

We’re also “moving some cheese” by eliminating our double-daily roundtrip nonstops between Akron/Canton and Milwaukee and replacing them with two daily Akron/Canton-Chicago-Midway nonstops. To view a comprehensive chart of all the changes for both carriers, visit www.swamedia.com.

Like I told you, we’ve got a lot of changes to our schedule that start in August of 2012, and we’re just inches into the schedule integration process…so we’ve got a long way yet to go on this road.  Stay tuned, because we’re planning to open the October schedule in mid-February.  Have a great Sunday, everyone—GO NINERS!!!—and happy booking! 

[mikebarnbaum]

Hi Bill: Quite an extensive schedule, I must say. I was successful in utilizing travel funds from another confirmation number and have saved some money over the advertised $117 Web Only Wanna Get Away Fare for a trip to Denver the weekend after Labor Day Weekend. I will be traveling on Denver's RTD Route "AB" between The Airport and Boulder on Saturday to take in the Sacramento State Football Game against the Colorado Buffaloes. The game itself does not have a time yet, so traveling on Southwest on Friday and Sunday assures that I have covered the field to not miss one play on Saturday the 8th of September. For Sacramento State, this will be Week Two of their schedule as in Week One, the Football Team will head to Las Cruses, New Mexico to take on New Mexico State. I will remain in Northern California that weekend and hop onboard Amtrak's Capitol Corridor to see the Oakland A's host the Boston Red Sox on Sunday of Labor Day Weekend. In the Southwest Schedule, I want to thank you for displaying the PDF list of changes as I have recommended that in the past through this blog. It took awhile to find it, but it is on the pages of SWA Media on Southwest's Website. It looks like Sacramento only took a loss of one roundtrip flight to and from Ontario. This is not such a huge loss. There are many Southern California Airports Sacramento passengers have to choose from and having one flight eliminated in wake that all of the other choices had no changes to it, I would consider a sigh of relief. As for my roundtrip to Denver is concerned, I was a bit concerned that Flight 479 was moved up from a 6:05pm departure to now be called Flight 488, departing at 4:20pm. I will have to work this out with my direct manager so that I can safely take SuperShuttle to the Sacramento Airport at a time that works for both of us as well as SuperShuttle. Had Flight 479 remained at its August 10th time slot, then the pick-up time for SuperShuttle at my workplace would not have been an issue because they would pick me up after my shift rather than during my shift as will be the case for Flight 488 in September. My return flight home, although it stops but does not switch planes in Seattle, is at a reasonable time that I do not have to get up too early at my Denver Airport Hotel, nor do I arrive in Sacramento too late to miss any available public transportation on YoloBus or Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail that would have otherwise cause me to schedule SuperShuttle Transportation directly home. Riding Public Transportation always saves me money over SuperShuttle Transportation. Thank you again for opening the schedules up to the 28th of September, I will now look forward to what is coming up next in schedules as well as the continuing integration process of AirTran eventually becoming Southwest over the course of time. Great reading as always. I look forward to talking to you soon. Sincerely, Mike Barnbaum, Rapid Rewards Member in Sacramento, California (SMF)

[Doug_Royer]

Southwest and Airtran have something good up their sleeve I think! A lot of capacity has been cut from Chicago on both airlines - and judging from the conversion of Akron service from Milwaukee to Chicago, I think its only the start. Nearly the entire Southwest route map has all served cities with nonstops to Chicago. I would expect that the newer Airtran cities are being connected soon! The likes of Memphis, Charlotte, Richmond, Rochester, Dayton, and Flint are sticking out like sore thumbs so to speak, not being plugged-in to the network. Nearly all Southwest cities are served nonstop to Las Vegas as well - and looks like there's a chance to grow there too, at the same cities listed above...

[Anthony3]

NO WAY the niners are winning, GO GIANTS!!!!!

[Anonymous1918]

As an Albuquerque customer, I am a little concerned that we have now lost 4 non-stop markets this year alone, with SLC being cut earlier in the summer. While these are all once daily markets, I am concerned that these losses are not being made up for to larger cities (DEN in particular, where we are at just 3 flights a day, despite being a rather short flight). I have used the service a couple of times to SLC, and the loss would be a little easier to stomach if we had a couple more daily flights to Denver. The lack of frequency to Denver also has an impact on my choice of airlines when flying to MSP. In some schedules, there are 3 good options to get to MSP via DEN, and in others, there are none. None of the other connection cities on Southwest are very convenient, forcing me to seriously consider using United via DEN, where the connection opportunites are more abundent, or to take advantage of Delta's non-stop service. I hope in future schedules you consider boosting the frenquencies from ABQ to both DEN and HOU, as these markets provide very good connection opportunities to your loyal passengers in Albuquerque.

[Bill_from_DC]

Dear WN, HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR DCA-MDW? Sorry for the All Caps but this should be the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth! These were probably the only flights in the history of ATA that were always full... with 4x daily service on one-class 757s! DCA-MDW would be a far more exciting (and IMO lucrative) way for WN to make its long-awaited arrival into DCA than by simply re-branding the existing FL service to ATL (6x), MKE (4x), MCO (4 wkly flights) and RSW (1x) as WN flights. I know you are slot-restricted at DCA but you have to trust me that we have enough flights to ATL so hopefully that is a place to start! Perhaps CAK, of all places, serves as a guide for DCA service, based on the announcement above that its two daily MKE flights will be replaced with two daily MDW flights. We should be so lucky! Sincerely, DCA fliers

[jim_saas1]

bill, you are probably aware of this.... but the new cak-mdw flights are not showing up in the airtran schedule...if you put in the origin city...cak or mdw the destination can't be accessed..

[francina__donne]

I WAS SO SAD TO HEAR S.W.A. WILL NOT BE FLYING OUT OF BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL ( CIRA) WAS HOPING FOR THE THE DIRECT FLIGHT TO LAS VEGAS. LOT'S AND LOT'S OF PEOPLE ARE VERY SAD ABOUT S.W.A. NOT USING THIS BEAUTIFUL AIRPORT TO FLY TO MANY PLACES. BEST WISHES S.W.A. FRANCINA. .

[John_Currie]

Can you provide us with an update on plans for Southwest flying into Portland, Maine? It was announced in the Portland newpapers over a year ago that plans were being made and that they coincided with the renovations to the Portland Jet Port. I currently fly AirTran from Houston to Portland, Maine, but would prefer the SWA touch and East Coast connection cities.

[Rob28]

Nice to see ORF-ATL coming on line. ATL is a HUGE O&D for ORF and it is nice to see DL getting some competition. I notice ORF-LAS was not pulled in this load, will it remain past september this year, or will it remain seasonal? I suspect those flights do well, but it sure would be nice to see ORF-DEN sometime in the future or perhaps non-stop ORF-FLL. Other than SAN, last I knew (a few years ago) FLL was one of the largest O&D markets for ORF without non-stop service.

[Sarah_Chabinak]

When will you start flying in to RIChmond???? I love Southwest and fly it almost exclusively, but can't to VA...ORF and DCA are just too far from where I need to go!

[Tony_Co]

With all these schedule reductions, while keeping the fleet flat, what will be done with the aircraft? Thank you, Tony

[Shawn_L_Tinsley]

I am disappointed to see that the JAX to TPA/TPA to JAX flight is being discontinued. I live in Jacksonville but my office is based in St Petersburg so this route made it simply. I guess I will have to start driving the distance which will take money out of Southwest's pocket since I go back an forth up to 3 times a month. I hope SWA will reconsider, they are the only airline that made this route and for the business folks it was great. May be they will consider a morning and afternoon flight during the week and weekends. PS: This flight is also used by many football fans to get to the games both pro and college that are held in Jacksonville.

[sanroth]

Hi We are wondering when the Orlando to Rochester Southwest Flights will begin. Looking to book a family trip.. Thanks