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THE WRIGHT STUFF!

Bill
Employee
Employee
Somewhere, something has "frozen over." Today, for the first time in our 35-year history, Southwest Airlines began selling revenue tickets between Dallas' Love Field and Los Angeles; between Dallas and Chicago; between Dallas and La$ Vega$; between Dallas and Orlando, and between Dallas and Phoenix, plus 20 other cities spread all across our nationwide network.  In all, Southwest now gives travelers the Freedom to Fly between Dallas and 43 cities from sea to shining sea-always, of course, with low fares and Positively Outrageous Service!  Many of you (particularly those of you who live here in the Metroplex area, as well as all 32,000 of us in the Southwest Airlines Family) know about the highly public and heated struggle to get the outdated and anti-competitive Wright Amendment repealed.  To those of you who joined in the battle, a hearty THANK YOU.  We couldn't have done it without EVERYONE'S support! However, there was a great deal of preparation that was done, very much in the background, over the past 12 to 18 months to get ready for today.  For example, many of the systems that are used to essentially run our airline had been "hard coded" to prevent the display or sale of itineraries that violated the Wright Amendment-after all, it was a federal law, and many of us don't look very good in black-and-white stripes.  In order to fix this, many of our operational departments-with the invaluable help of our incredible Technology group-spent long hours changing and testing our systems to enable them to handle this historic change. The good folks in our Revenue Management and Pricing group have been busily getting fares ready to publish in the new Dallas markets so that Customers could purchase tickets as soon as the ink was dry on the legislation.  You'll be happy to know that, despite what other airlines have charged the traveling public to fly to or from Dallas, on Southwest our highest one-way fare between Big D and any of the 43 destinations we're serving from Dallas will be $319, plus taxes and passenger facility charges.  No longer do last-minute travelers between Dallas and the East or West Coasts have to mortgage their homes for same-day travel! Here in the Schedule Planning Department, we've been in our usual "stealth mode" preparing for the phased-out demise of the Wright Amendment.  For about a year now, at each of the five major schedule changes that we process and publish each year we've been changing the schedule, a little bit here and a little bit there, to make sure that when the law was modified Southwest Airlines would be well-positioned to make as much of our network accessible to Dallas as possible.  We've also been slowly, and quietly, adding service between Dallas and existing service points such as Albuquerque, St. Louis, and New Orleans so that when we "flipped the switch" on these new itineraries, they would be as quick and convenient for our Customers as possible.  As a result, I'm very pleased to report that, for each of the new markets we've just opened up to and from Dallas, our Customers will have to stop no more than once!  And even better, many of those new itineraries don't even require that you get off the plane.  For example-want to fly from Phoenix to Dallas?  We've now got six flights each business day on which you'll stop once on the way, but never have to leave your seat until you reach Big D.  In addition, we've also got four convenient one-stop connections in the market, giving you a total of ten daily ways to LUV your way from the Valley of the Sun to the Metroplex.  And we're not done yet.  Even though the compromise won't allow us to add any new nonstop destinations from Dallas until 2014, Schedule Planning will continue to "tweak" the schedule making Dallas more and more convenient to the rest of the nation.  So as of Thursday (October 19)--air travel to and from Dallas just got a whole lot easier.  With the 94 new travel options that went on sale today for travel on October 19 and beyond, Dallas Love Field is now just one stop away from 43 destinations in America!  And one quick stop can be a good thing.  After all, one stop means you get an extra coke, one more bag of peanuts, (both at no charge!) and just that many more smiles from the friendliest Flight Crews in the sky!  Thanks for your support....thanks for your hard work....and thanks for the VICTORY!  
18 Comments
Jim13
Adventurer C
That behind the scenes stuff about scheduling is pretty interesting. I'm guessing it means more flights and the biggest planes to the "bounce" cities. I can't wait to just browse the schedules online.
BLD
Explorer B
Bravo for having a stealth schedule ready to roll. I just checked SABRE and don't see the schedules or fares yet- hopefully soon! While nonstops from DAL to PHX would be great, any option other than AA's very high "walk up" fares will be a blessing for fare-sensitive travellers. Thanks for all of the hard work your group has done!
FriendofBlogBoy
Frequent Flyer B
Bill, I knew that you had been making plans for this week for some time; any intelligent manager anticipates major events and changes and is not caught by surprise. Certainly, we all HOPED this change would come, but optimism aside, pragmatism dictated that you create contingency plans, and I would have been disappointed if you hadn't! However, a huge CONGRATULATIONS is in order for you and your team, because rearranging the entire SW route planning to accomodate the "newest city" in your system could not have been easy. We look forward to the official unveiling of your work and we thank you and everyone in Schedule Planning for your hard work! Kim 🙂
Jack12
Explorer C
So are we going to get more nonstops from Kansas City to the West Coast because of the new freedom to move about the country?
Roy
Explorer C
Bill, Are you taking a look at adding non-stops to BHM and JAN now that you can offer one-stops through there to Florida, IAD, BWI etc.?
Dustin
Explorer C
Congratulations on all of the hard work and I cannot wait until I can start taking my favorite airline from DAL to destinations outside of the Wright 9!!! You are why I fly!
Don_Abbott
Explorer C
What a bittersweet day. Since the cigar smoke of the backroom deal that created the Wright Amendment has hung in the air for 26 years, today feels like the summit of Everest. But for me as a Dallasite for 40-plus years, I wish full repeal had been possible. The struggle for Love is far from over for many of us. Future generations will ask some pretty pressing questions about why such an asset as Love Field is nothing more than a boutique airport. Some of the politicians who ignored their constituents wishes will be long gone 10, 15, or 20 years from now. And the general landscape will be vastly different. Southwest will probably be flying into not only Love, but Colin County as well. Thanks for providing the muscle needed to take the first steps for repealing Wright.
James
Explorer C
I'm looking forward to ski season with the new Denver route. Hello, Boeing? We need more planes. l wonder if I will be flying through Amarillo or Albuquerqe or somewhere else?
dennis2
Explorer B
maybe, but why close flights on nov 19 to florida. I guess you don't want people flying dal to florida in nov. dec.
blusk
Aviator C
Hi Dennis, As with any schedule change, it takes several days to completely load our new schedules into the computer. Normally, this process is completely behind the scenes. However, with our new Dallas service, we had to wait until the Wright Reform Act became law. That happened on October 16, and we immediately began loading the new service, but the schedules are being loaded in batches. Our Technology folks are working around the clock to complete this process, and the entire new schedule should be loaded by the start of the new service on October 19. Please be patient.
FriendofBlogBoy
Frequent Flyer B
Brian, You're correct -- we all need to chill out and have more patience. The problem is, I want more patience RIGHT NOW! I take it as a good sign that so many of your Customers are so excited about this that they are eagerly 'chomping at the bit' to take to the skies with Southwest. This vindicates all of the arguments that there ARE people who would fly more, thereby benefitting the citizens of Dallas, if Wright was repealed. Here is the evidence of it as you see folks already checking out the website for fares and schedules and then blogging that it is not happening quickly enough! That enthusiasm will translate into increased load factors and revenue, both for SWA and for the City of Dallas, and into increased connectivity as people travel to new locations and with more frequency than before now that the barriers are being removed slowly but surely. As I mentioned above, I know that Bill and his team are tackling a gargantuan task, and they are no doubt hunkered down inside the darkened and secret Batcave even as we speak, slaving away with slide rules, completely unfolded Texaco road maps and crayons, feverishly figuring out the best new routings. I hope that senior management will occasionally crack the door open and toss some cookies inside for sustenance and to keep those folks motivated, since your fans are anxiously awaiting the results! By the way, I've never seen Mount Rushmore. How soon before you start rapping with the stone-faced Presidents and begin service from DAL to RAP (Rapid City, SD)? :-) Kim
Gwen_Thalley
Explorer C
Thank you ALL for your hard work and dedication to a very good cause. We all fought this together, and the struggle was not easy. The Legislative Awareness Department has once again proved, with hard work, perseverance and dedication you can and will achieve. "Wright was Wrong". DAL Station...Get ready ! - Gwen
Marcus
Explorer B
I had the same question as up above regarding not seeing flights to/from DAL after November 26th. I checked out schedules an airfares to fly SAN-DAL on Nov. 3rd-6th. You really can't beat $220 roundtrip. So I booked that already, but I wanted to book another flight to DAL for December but couldn't do it. But don't worry Southwest, I'll be back to book it as soon as the schedule opens up.
Jim13
Adventurer C
You'll think I'm silly, but I just keep going to the reservations page and clicking on DAL as my start city. Then I start grinning when I see the list of choices that is two (or more) times as big as it was yesterday.
Michelle15
Explorer C
Congratulations on such a momentous achievement! As a regular Southwest flyer, this is fantastic news and it will certainly allow me to choose Southwest more often. What will be even more wonderful, however, is when you tell me that I can fly from MHT to DAL easily with perhaps a single stop at BWI. Any chance that's possible now?
FriendofBlogBoy
Frequent Flyer B
Jim, Nahhh, you're not silly. All of us Southwest junkies are doing the same thing. You can tell us by the goofy grins on our face and the fact that after we type "www.so" our Internet browsers automatically finish typing "uthwest.com" for us! Kim :-) (and for some of us, our browser also auto-types "og.southwest.com"!)
Jim13
Adventurer C
Kim - you have to type all the way to the "o"? You're slacking off.
Paul7
Explorer C
Thanks for giving us the scoop on the new services from DAL. As great as it is, we need to keep looking at Macon/ Atlanta, Columbia/Charlotte, Minneapolis/Rochester, and go after the juglar of the others. Those airports draw from many mid market cities that many of us have to use other airlines for. Get in there and get the revenue. Many in SW Georgia have nothing but the 3 hr drive to JAX or ATL - and the military bases down that way would be an awesome draw - and of course, those of us tired of flying into crowded Atlanta - with all the delays !!!!! GET IN THERE !!!