Nice work on the 270 days of inventory, Bill. That's quite a good change from a couple years ago. I noticed that some flights will operate a little earlier morning and a little later night than they have lately--is that how the additional flying is funded? Makes sense to me since midsummer is the best time to fill up seats from early 'til late.
... View more
Bill, I'm glad to see PHX gain some service frequencies after a little bit of trimming over the last couple years. Are we getting closer to the day that you have special schedules for market specific holiday periods? The schedule has been open for fewer than 24 hours and a couple flights ISP-FLL and ISP-MCO have already completely sold out around President's Day week, probably all at full fares. So the revenue from extra sections from the northeast to Florida around that timeframe would be impressive. Thanks as always for your posts.
... View more
To echo "el presidente"... as a 20+ year SWA flyer (A-List, Companion Pass, shareholder) living in PHX and part time in MSP... having seen the large number of through passengers MSP-DEN-PHX... yay yay and yay! Thanks!
... View more
03-23-2010
01:50 PM
12 Loves
Bill, thanks as always for your story behind the schedule changes and the detailed PDF. In addition to the Washington/Dulles restructuring, it looks like Orange County has also become a little more network oriented, with reductions in intra-California funding increases to the much more connection capable PHX, LAS, and MDW. Is this also an increased focus on network connectivity given the slot constraints at Orange County?
A correction--"We're deleting 83 roundtrip flights while adding 25 roundtrips, or a net decrease of 116 flights from the network." Should be a net decrease of 58 flights... right?
... View more
12-17-2009
03:38 PM
2 Loves
Bill, thanks as always for your posting about new schedules. I luv the frequency change PDFs. Yes, you should brag about your schedule optimizer more often. Do you set it up to ramp up important one stop routings? My recent MSP-DEN-PHX flight had 50+ through passengers on it, and I'm glad to see a boost from the current 1 up to 2 onestops each way PHX-MSP and MSP-PHX with the summer schedule.
I think your next new market should be ATL, simply because it's the only US top 20 metro without SWA service.
... View more
What a great sale--the first day was rough with the website overload but I've found everything running well when making many bookings on days 2 and 3 of this sale--thanks for getting everything running smoothly.
... View more
I would never have guessed Panama City, but I suppose it shows that Southwest is open to market opportunities large (like MSP and BOS) and smaller. Lucky STL! Bill, I know this isn't under your control, but I can't wait to see your fleet growth ramp up again so that more ready to grow markets can get boosted! Thanks for your post.
... View more
Bill, thank you for providing the PDFs with the detailed frequency changes with your post. I'm still impressed that you generally end up with such well spaced departures compared to the old school years ago schedules.
Here's a question on the seasonal winter to spring flying time transition. I would think that for all the increased (mostly westbound) typical headwinds that impact schedules, you'd have about as many typical tailwinds so that it would more or less even out. So is the real winter impact because winds are both stronger and more unpredictable so you have to put a bit more cushion into the winter block times all around?
One more question to go with this... Is the new March weekday flying increase due strictly to seasonal flying time changes, or does some of the increase come from slightly lengthening the day on some lines? After all, I assume that early/late flights in some markets will perform better in April than in January.
... View more
Bill,
Nice work on the additional holiday Sunday schedules... Thanksgiving Sunday is the ultimate "rush hour". I look forward to seeing 5 digit flight numbers once you have the every day of the week and market specific special event optimizer in place (maybe someday, yeah?)
Is there a spreadsheet out there anywhere with November market additions and reductions? Thanks.
... View more
Bill--thanks for all the answers. A couple more questions... now that there are seasonal schedule variations (like more Florida in winter and more northern market flights in summer), can we expect expanded early and late departures in the more seasonal markets during their peak seasons? For example, an additional evening PVD-MCO flight that would be weak in September might make sense in March, and could be drawn from a line that otherwise parks a little early. You mention day of week variations; this would be very appropriate for markets like LAX-LAS and LAX-OAK and I'm sure it would be a lot of work. Even beyond that I could see vacation week variations... think of the possibilities for boosted Spring Break service to Florida. Okay, I'll stop finding ways to make your job harder! Thanks.
... View more
Nice to see New England with more complete Southwest service now. Can we eventually expect to see Boston nonstops to destinations similar to those served by Providence and Manchester? Orlando, for example, has a lot of nonstop Southwest service from Providence, Manchester, and Hartford. Thanks.
... View more
04-01-2009
01:53 PM
15 Loves
Great news! This really improves Southwest's schedules from MSP to the west, too.
... View more
10-03-2008
07:36 PM
4 Loves
Hallelujah! Ever since close family moved to MSP I've had to push a bunch of my travel to other airlines to get there (eating some change fees along the way). This closes that big network hole for this A-lister. It will be nice to see all the nationwide SWA advertising aired in MSP put to good use now, too. Nice!
... View more
Seasonal service is a big change and it sounds very exciting. Should we expect more extensive seasonal shifts in years to come? Are seasonal shifts expected to be May and November? I'm glad to see that no routes were cut in the new schedule. That's a pretty impressive rampup in Denver; it will be exciting to watch since there's lots of competition there. Thanks for the post and for your endless work smoothing schedules--fascinating stuff for this airline geek.
... View more
Bill,
Thanks for sharing the background on the new Saturday schedule. Someday optimizing each day of the week sounds like a real (and challenging) opportunity. Maybe add some late evening Friday/Sunday on the high volume short hauls while trimming some of the late evening Tuesday/Wednesday flights that go out light? Add some early Monday morning flights for commuters? Might there be some seasonality shifts further down the road, such as boosting Florida frequencies in the winter then shifting the extra capacity to more northern markets in the summer? Fascinating stuff, thanks.
... View more
