Southwest Airlines Community

Is SWA going to restore the very popular flight between Manchester and Las Vegas? I don't know why SWA eliminated such a successful route in August 2012. Please consider restoring this important flight. This route is always full, airport officials say it has over a 95% load factor. Also will you be restoring the some of the other flights, like the Tampa and Fort. Lauderdale to/from Manchester. ... View more

Hi Brian, I don't blame SWA for continuously evaluating the profitably of routes and making changes where necessary. It's just good business. But, please remember, if there were reductions in load factors on the MHT routes, it was largely caused by SWA's new Boston flights cannibalizing the business at MHT. Some of it was due to the economic slump, of course. It would be good if SWA would consider adding some of more point to point destinations from Manchester. There are many viable possibilities. Why not St. Louis and Denver service to Manchester (and Providence also!) to compliment the new service from Boston? Why not service to Houston, which Manchester has been requesting for many years? Or restoring service to Ft. Lauderdale, Kansas City or Nashville? SWA shored up public confidence in New Hampshire when it restored some of their normal service levels at MHT for the summer of 2010. It would eliminate idle speculation and silence the rumors if they opened even one new route. I believe SWA is not interested in leaving MHT, it's still a very big station for them considering that Manchester is only a small to medium sized city. But there are a lot of misinformed people who are convinced SWA will be leaving, or some in the Boston area who wish SWA would transfer more or all operations to Logan. (Maybe just wishful thinking on their part.) I like SWA and use them whenever I can. Please keep the fares the same at BOS, PVD and MHT!! Thanks, --Bob ... View more

It is really sad what Southwest has done to it's loyal base at MHT. Manchester has fewer Southwest flights now, and some promised service restorations don't appear to be returning. And worse, they are not really matching fares. The prices are different for the same destinations from BOS, MHT and PVD. And often the special fares are more expensive at MHT. Still SWA is by far the most important and most dominate carrier at MHT. It's scary that they have over 60% of the market. The really important SWA destinations like Orlando need that 4th flight back. And it's time for Southwest to add another daily flight to Las Vegas, something they should consider when the economy turns around. Let's face it, Boston Logan has way too many flights. It's not just the low cost carriers like Southwest, or AirTran or JetBlue. United, Delta and possibly Continental all have way more flights out of Boston than even that large market can justify. Just do a quick analysis for yourself and you'll come to the same inescapable conclusion. Eventually something is going to give at Logan. It's unsustainable. I really like SWA, but, sorry to say, I hope JetBlue comes to MHT. In the long run they probably have to enter the MHT market since SWA came into Boston and is taking market share away from them there. If JetBlue opens a station in MHT, SWA has only themselves to blame for it. However, for NH the most important reason we need JetBlue is to help MHT to get better service to the NYC area. We've never had good quality service to JFK. Also their presence in MHT will keep fares down for all the other airlines operating in MHT. If JetBlue enters the market it will not impact SWA's fare structure very much, but it may force SWA to open new routes Unfortunately it's really expensive to fly out of Manchester now, and the service options are poor, with SWA being the notable exception. This all suites Logan quite well. They are charging back. They never liked Manchester taking NH business away from them. The environment is similar to how it was 20 years ago. I'm sure Logan International is lobbying JetBlue, AirTran and some of the other airlines not to open stations in MHT. ... View more