Here we grow again...
05-09-2008 | Growth in DEN Means Fewer Aircraft Retirements this Year
On Wednesday, Southwest Announced new DEN service for the second time in two weeks. Beginning August 4, 2008, Southwest will add: Two new daily nonstop roundtrips between DEN and SMF; One new daily nonstop roundtrip between DEN and FLL; One new daily nonstop roundtrip between DEN and MSY; One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between DEN and PHX (for a total of seven).
During a time when the industry is constantly fluctuating, our flexibility allows us the ability to move quickly and decisively with our growth plans. Originally, Southwest had planned to retire 22 aircraft in 2008. Based on strong Customer demand for our growing Denver service, that decision was reversed on two of those aircraft with our announcement on April 22 of new service from DEN to PDX and IND, and additional service from DEN to LAS and SAT. With the new Denver service announcement above, we have again reversed our decision to retire two additional aircraft. So, at this time we are planning to retire 18 aircraft in 2008 instead of 22. We are taking 29 deliveries in 2008, then retiring 18, so that gives us a net of 11 aircraft in 2008, bringing our estimated 2008 year-over-year ASM capacity growth to approximately four percent.