Southwest Starts LaGuardia Service June 28
Andrew Compart andrew_compart@aviationweek.com 
Southwest will begin service from New York LaGuardia to Chicago Midway and Baltimore Washington Airport June 28, making use of the 14 LaGuardia slots it acquired from ATA Airlines in late March following bankruptcy court approval of the $7.5 million transaction.
Southwest said it will offer five daily flights to Chicago and three to Baltimore. Those eight daily flights would seem to require 16 arrival and departure slots, not 14. But Southwest squeezed in an eighth daily flight by scheduling its first LaGuardia-Midway departure and last Midway-LaGuardia arrival outside of the slot controlled times of 7 a.m. to 9:59 p.m. (The first flight to Midway will leave LaGuardia at 6:10 a.m., and the last arrival from Midway will be at 10:35 p.m.)
In flying to Midway and BWI, Southwest is trying to take advantage not only of origin-and-destination markets that are very popular business routes--a potentially big deal for a carrier that has been increasing its efforts to attract more business travelers--but also the opportunities for connecting service via airports where it already has a big presence. Southwest said its new LaGuardia flights will offer customers the option to connect to 45 other markets via Midway and BWI.
LaGuardia travelers, for example, will be able to connect to Southwest's popular Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, Fla., markets via BWI.
"I think we have the opportunity to capture customers who are looking for both [business and leisure]," a Southwest spokeswoman said.
That strategy--starting service out of the airport with just a couple of routes but a lot of connecting opportunities--is the same one Southwest is using for its new service out Minneapolis-St. Paul. Southwest began MSP service to Chicago Midway March 9 and adds service to Denver May 26.
Southwest also is aiming in part at the higher-paying business market in selecting its two LaGuardia routes, although it will be facing plenty of competition and BWI is not as convenient to Washington, D.C., as Washington National. (The convenience of Washington Dulles and BWI to downtown Washington may be a wash: Dulles is slightly closer but BWI has a train travel option, and from both airports a traveler can end up stuck in a traffic jam.) Southwest's presence, however, could drive down fares on competing airlines to some extent.
With three daily flights, Southwest's New York-Washington service will definitely not come close to being a shuttle-type service, but a Southwest spokeswoman did not completely rule that out as a future option.
"Growth is always an option for Southwest," she said, while also noting that the slot availability at LaGuardia constrains its growth options there right now.
As far as preventing any on-time issues at delay-prone LaGuardia from affecting the on-time performance of the rest of its system, Southwest noted that almost all of its connecting service via BWI and Midway will require a change of planes. That means LaGuardia delays, in most instances, should not impact other flights.
Photo credit: Benet Wilson
