I just mapped out Sarasota to Tampa 1 hr 3 mins or 61 miles on I75! (Google Maps)
Pensacola to Panama City 110 miles or 2 hrs and 44 mins on US Hwy 98!
So don't tell me or anyone else to drive to Panama City!
Pensacola to New Orleans : 201 miles or 3 hrs 9 mins on a safer non stop highway!
Somebody say FOUL!
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There is an INTERSTATE system between Tampa and Sarasota!!! Obviously you don't know where Panama City is (along US HWY 98). It won't happen.
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I hate how all of us who pledged $$$$$ in hopes of getting Southwest to Pensacola were duped into thinking we had a chance. Why didn't Southwest just say NO PENSACOLA you don't have chance in this! We already picked Panama City because St Joe bought us as a charter airline. I think the way this played out will lead the surrounding communities to have sore feeling toward Southwest! Read the article below!
LUV is gone for Southwest
Carlton Proctor • cproctor@pnj.com • October 25, 2009
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Still in LUV with Southwest Airlines?
Not me.
Anybody buying that disingenuous "we're-still-in-the-running" line?
The outcome of this so-called campaign among the three Panhandle airports to win Southwest service was never in doubt.
The mega-deal between Southwest and the Panama City folks was locked down months ago, thanks to the deep and cavernous pockets of The St. Joe Co.
Owner of some 600,000 acres surrounding the new $330 million Panama City-Bay County International Airport, St. Joe engineered a monster $65 million deal that simply overwhelmed its late-starting competition.
While Pensacola folks were busily and enthusiastically mounting their Pledge LUV campaign, Southwest's CEO Gary Kelly was putting the finishing touches on the too-sweet-to-refuse deal worked out with St. Joe.
Pensacola never had a chance, and Southwest executives should have said so months ago.
And when the dust settled last week, the harsh reality that stunned local officials the most was that Southwest would lead them — right up to the morning of the announcement — to believe that they were still in the game.
In effect, Southwest ignored its long-standing and highly successful business plan and agreed to be bought by St. Joe.
As one well-connected Pensacola official said, "St. Joe paid Southwest tens of millions of dollars to become a charter airline for their new airport."
Another told me Southwest's behavior was "very disturbing" given Pensacola's determined and decade-long efforts to build good will with the Dallas-based airline.
So, where does all this leave Pensacola's Gulf Coast Regional Airport?
If you read the details of the Southwest deal, it's apparent the carrier has no intention of starting service to Pensacola before 2013, and perhaps many years beyond that.
Southwest is not going to do anything that would jeopardize its efforts to build a new market in Bay County, and Kelly said as much in a news conference last week.
All of the above raises the question of whether Pensacola should even bother sending a hat-in-hand delegation to Dallas in mid-November to make nice with Southwest executives, as if the steamroller Panama City-Bay County deal never happened.
That same delegation might better spend its time and money promoting the airlines we do have here, not the ones we don't.
The Southwest dance is over for now; it's time to move on.
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Dear SWA,
I, as well as many in the Pensacola area, am very disappointed about your decision to pick Panama City and leave Pensacola behind in 2010. The decision makes NO sense. Panama City is an end destination where few will travel outbound. Panama City has a small catchment area compared to Pensacola which is on I10 and would reach beyond the Biloxi to Tallahassee corridor. Panama City has no road access. In fact it is a 2.5hr drive to Pensacola on a good day with no traffic and 1.5hrs to Destin. Try adding a 2hr arrival time before your departure to that and I am afraid your passenger numbers will be low. Surely Pensacola has a larger catchment area given that its airport has more passenger traffic than Mobile, Ft Walton and Panama City combined. The Pensacola metro area is almost 1/2 million!While the St Joe aggreement may look attractive, it is the good old singular customer that brings long term business. It was the "big number$" which brought on the housing crunch over common sense decision making. Good luck!
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Dear SWA,
I also think you made a LARGE mistake picking Panama City over Pensacola. Your catchment would have been much larger here. It is a no brainer really. You could have drawn passengers along the I10 corridor (Biloxi to Pensacola to Destin) and North along Federal Hwy 29. The Panama City choice just doesn't make sense. It is an end destination with no good road access and no interstate access. The St Joe aggreement, while attractive, just does not make sense while we have passenger traffic in Pensacola in amounts that equal Panama City, Mobile, and Fort Walton Beach combined. Now you have alienated only Panama City residents to use your service for outgoing flights. Panama city to Pensacola is 2.5 hrs on a GOOD day with NO traffic and Destin to Panama City is 1.5 hrs driving time. Trying adding a 2 hr early arrival to that before checking in !
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