Airtran drops 5 cities, does SWA know what to do? Could it be....?

[General Lee]

DALLAS (AP) -- AirTran Airways said Friday that it will stop flights to five destinations including Miami next June because of the weak economy and high fuel costs.

AirTran, which was bought by Southwest Airlines Co. in May, will end service after June 2 to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.; Miami International Airport; Knoxville, Tenn.; Bloomington-Normal, Ill.; and Charleston, W.V.

The airline operates about three daily flights at Dulles and Bloomington. It operates a handful of flights at the other three locations with vendors.
Southwest said it will continue flights to Dulles.

AirTran said it was eliminating the five airports from its map to match service with customer demand and make room for "future opportunities" without adding planes.

The changes will be included in AirTran's next flight schedule, which is expected to be released on Sunday.
Later this month, AirTran is scheduled to halt service to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Southwest operates a heavy schedule of flights from nearby Dallas Love Field.



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Hamfighter]

Dumb, dumb, dumb...the end of southwest airlines.

Don't believe it for a second, but it had to be said.

 

[spudskier]

well, my finger is bleeding so I'll just chop off my hand

 

[slaquer5]

So gl/oy6. Are u saying Swa is no longer going to serve IAD?

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[GhettoBeechjet]

WN will continue to serve IAD. My prediction is that the schedule will be drawn down to accommodate the addition of the 800. Remember Laura Wright said that ASMs are going to be flat to slightly negative for the 2012 at the investor conf. More seats on the 800 mean less airplanes.
She said it again in this ATW interview last week.

http://atwonline.com/article/article/q-southwest-airlines-cfo-laura-wright-1109

 

[CaptWidgeon]

we don't have rj's to give mainline trips too, like delta, so if we don't make money we cut 'em.

 

[On Your Six]

So gl/oy6. Are u saying Swa is no longer going to serve IAD?

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I don't think Lee said anything but the title. What did it say in the article? Only Airtran, not SWA, is leaving IAD. I think he did underline some stuff, though.


Godspeed!


OYS

 

[On Your Six]

we don't have rj's to give mainline trips too, like delta, so if we don't make money we cut 'em.

With the last quarterly loss due to your lack of hedging compared to others, you may have to get rid of more cities or maybe planes. You just don't have those famous hedges anymore that caused so much havoc for everyone else. Bummer. At least you still have your culture......uh, wait...


Godspeed!


OYS

 

[GhettoBeechjet]

With the last quarterly loss due to your lack of hedging compared to others, you may have to get rid of more cities or maybe planes. You just don't have those famous hedges anymore that caused so much havoc for everyone else. Bummer. At least you still have your culture......uh, wait...


Godspeed!


OYS

OYS actually our "loss" was due to mark to market on our hedges. I don't care that you bash on SWA but at least be accurate please.

 

[redflyer65]

With the last quarterly loss due to your lack of hedging

Godspeed!


OYS

That's funny Genital. Clueless as usual.

 

[slaquer5]

I don't think Lee said anything but the title. What did it say in the article? Only Airtran, not SWA, is leaving IAD. I think he did underline some stuff, though.


Godspeed!


OYS

Slaquer7 told me u two are nuts

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[BlueandWhite]

If you guys hadn't already figured it out, starting in 2012, AirTran's 737's are going to be taken out of service to be reconfigured under SWA colors. Expect to see more AirTran schedule reductions as their fleet comes under SWA's. Some cities will be cut, but some will come back in the SWA schedule.

 

[GIZMONC]

FL has 52 737-700 age ranges from 2.5-7.5 years old. How long will it take to repaint, and reconfigure the seats to WN seating.

 

[767/757]

FL has 52 737-700 age ranges from 2.5-7.5 years old. How long will it take to repaint, and reconfigure the seats to WN seating.

4 months

 

[Cruncher]

OY6,

Did you fly the F15 and the Bone?

 

[Lear70]

4 months

Not quite.

54 days for each 737. 15 days for the 717's. The 737's will take longer because of the removal of one lav and the addition of a galley in its place. Many 737's will also add the equipment necessary for extended overwater ops while they are in, including ceiling-mounted rafts, HF and Selcal equipment, etc. Some aircraft will take a little longer as they will get C checks while they're in.

This is old news. We always knew we were going to lose quite a few cities out of the deal; SWA management was very clear about it. One of the main reasons is that the ramp / counter agents at Southwest do not allow ANY outsourcing, and many of those cities we only serve a few times a week or seasonally. Therefore the cost of making them all Southwest employees full-time and keeping service year-round, especially if the yields won't support it, makes it cost-prohibitive.

Also, as was mentioned, some of the city pairings currently flown by 737's will be served by 717's next year as those 737's are removed from service for reconfiguring. Therefore there won't be a large reduction in flying on the 717, but there will be SOME; line values are expected to decrease to close to guarantee during the transition, varying somewhat by how fast they take pilots over the partition.

In short... nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Skybus]

Actually Lear the ramp contract DOES allow outsourcing of staff under certain conditions/size. I do not know what exactly the constraints are but for this reason I thought we would be keeping some of these smaller cities and perhaps adding some of our own based on GK own words. That was before the economy headed south again and fuel prices headed north. I am sure there will be more to come.

 

[jonjuan]

Actually Lear the ramp contract DOES allow outsourcing of staff under certain conditions/size. I do not know what exactly the constraints are but for this reason I thought we would be keeping some of these smaller cities and perhaps adding some of our own based on GK own words. That was before the economy headed south again and fuel prices headed north. I am sure there will be more to come.

Hmmmmmmm, someone's not telling the tRuth then. Lear said ANY. Who's lying?

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

At least Moline, IL (Quad Cities) wasn't on the list!!!

 

[OK3]

Lear is not lying, but he has information that is a little dated. The ground employees old contract didn't allow for any outsourcing. Their latest contract allows for stations with fewer than some floor number of flights to be staffed by contract employees. I am not sure what the floor number is.

Blue B, sorry but I think ending service to Moline was announced previously.