Southwest Competes, Adds Boston Logan
Feb 20, 2009
By Andrew Compart
Southwest, which has been serving the Boston area for more than 10 years via Providence, R.I., and Manchester, N.H., said it will begin service to Boston’s Logan Airport this fall.
Although no specific routes have been announced yet, the decision means Southwest eventually could be competing directly against numerous carriers at Logan, including Delta, American, US Airways and low-cost carrier JetBlue — and in some ways against itself.
Manchester Boston Regional Airport, which Southwest has been serving since 1998, is located less than 50 miles north of Boston and bills itself as “The Convenient Alternative to Boston Logan International Airport and a Better Way to Boston.” Southwest also has been serving Providence TF Green Airport, also about 50 miles from Boston, since 1996.
Between those two airports, Southwest offers about 60 daily departures for nonstop service from what it describes as “the Boston area.” Southwest, however, has recent experience with a similar situation in the Washington, D.C., area, having built up Baltimore Washington Airport to be one of its biggest airports before starting service to Washington Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia in the fall of 2006; in that case, Southwest believed the markets were distinct enough that it would not cannibalize much of its own traffic. Southwest also serves several airports in fairly close proximity to each other in Southern California and California’s Bay Area.
Southwest has been more willing in recent years to take on big and low-cost airlines in places where they are established. For example, it went into Philadelphia against US Airways in 2004, and into Denver against United and Frontier in early 2006. Southwest already is slated to add service March 8 to Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, a Delta/Northwest hub, with eight daily flights to Chicago Midway (DAILY, Nov. 7, 2008). It also remains on track to acquire 14 arrival and departure slots at LaGuardia in late March from ATA Airlines, which is getting rid of its assets in bankruptcy, in order to start service there later this year (DAILY, Feb. 10).
Southwest Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly, who announced the Boston Logan addition to employees at an event in Chicago Feb. 18, said in a press release the next morning that he is “confident that Logan will be a great addition to our already strong presence in the New England area.” On Southwest’s blog, Bill Owen, lead planner for the airline’s schedule planning department, said Logan will “complement” the Providence and Manchester service, “so that travelers have several ways to choose Southwest from their favorite New England airport.”
Kelly said Southwest will begin service from Logan with “a conservative number of flights,” using two gates.
Southwest still plans to cut its capacity by about 4% in 2009, Kelly added, and will make room for the Logan service by “optimizing” its current flight schedule and repositioning aircraft. By “optimization” Southwest usually means reductions in frequencies or days of service on other routes to adjust for varying levels of demand, although it has occasionally cut a route entirely.
Photo: Southwest
