This expansion will come at someone's expense, given that SWA is not purchasing any new aircraft.
Nashville is experiencing a loss of non-stops to the west coast. My beloved non-stop to Ontario is gone. Denver's getting more flights.
I predict that these 18 departures out of Newark will go as follows:
2 to Chicago
2 to Washington Dulles
2 to Denver
2 to Phoenix
2 to Las Vegas
2 to Orlando
1 to West Palm Beach
2 to Ft. Lauderdale
2 to Tampa
1 to Nashville
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I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad that SWA is servicing South Carolina!
What a way to put it to Delta and USAirways for their skyway robberies of the Palmetto.
Now.....if SWA can assure that they can fly nonstop to or connect through Nashville, I will be in hog heaven - given that I live in Nashville. In fact, Nashville, Orlando, Baltimore, and Chicago make sense as their initial cities, allowing for Nashville and Chicago to be their gateways to the west. That'll put a dent into having to connect through Atlanta (which, if it rains, backs up tremendously).
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I suspect that MKE will be a feeder city rather than a hub to start with. I suspect that they will fly to Baltimore, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Orlando with connections from there. I hope that Nashville get thrown into that, especially since Orlando does not connect to Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville, two popular Florida locations. I would even wager that some of Nashville's routes to MDW could shift to MKE, given that many folks flying from Nashville to MDW are actually going to Wisconsin or North Chicago.
Nevertheless, I am happy that Southwest is doing this.
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Allow me to state that I am extremely pleased with the service that Southwest provides out of Nashville, Tennessee. I am scared, however, that our service availability is deteriorating as Southwest shifts its focus to Denver.
Nashville is losing many nonstop flights on Southwest. The first wave occurred when Nashville lost non-stops to Manchester, NH, Islip NY, and West Palm Beach, FL some 2 years ago. Later this year, Nashville will lose nonstops to Seattle, Oakland, and one (and in my experience, very popular) late night flight to LAX (American will still maintain this flight availability). While Southwest remains the best option to these cities (especially with service through Baltimore), given that Delta gave up on its Salt Lake City nonstop, it opens the door for American to service these west coast cities through its hub in Dallas and Frontier through its hub in Denver
I understand that Southwest has to do what it has to do to maintain profitability in these times - however I would like for Southwest to answer a question for me. I understand that it has been Southwest's model to provide service through the shorter flights about 300 miles in length between highly traveled cities, such as LAX to OAK or MDW to IND. Why does Southwest provide service from Birmingham to Nashville yet does not connect Nashville to St. Louis (which is almost too far to drive), Dulles (in competition with American & United) or Indianapolis? I'm sure that they have a good answer - however I would like to post this for comment.
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