canyonblue
Everyone loves Southwest
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 2,314
01/14/2003
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
BALTIMORE – Ten years ago, Southwest Airlines wasn't here. Two years from now, Baltimore could be the low-fare carrier's biggest city.
And the eyes of station manager Mike Miller twinkle when he reports that there are days when Baltimore/Washington International Airport has more Southwest passengers than Phoenix or Las Vegas, long the airline's No. 1 and No. 2 cities, as measured by daily flights. "This is the hot station," said Mr. Miller, who ran Southwest's operations in Orlando, Fla., before coming to Baltimore a year and a half ago.
His timing was good. Baltimore/Washington International – known as BWI – is building a $1.8 billion terminal that will add 26 gates by 2005. Southwest will take all of them.
"Really, this is going to end up as the pre-eminent airport on the Eastern seaboard," Mr. Miller said. BWI also is among the fastest-growing airports anywhere, adding 5 million passengers in the last four years and surpassing Dulles International Airport, 60 miles to the west in northern Virginia, in traffic. Dallas-based Southwest is responsible for the breakneck pace. A decade ago, US Airways flew the bulk of fliers here. Now in bankruptcy, it flies less than 10 percent while Southwest has grabbed 48 percent of BWI's travelers.
"Obviously, Southwest's presence here has made a difference," said Paul Wiedefeld, executive director of the Maryland Aviation Administration, which manages BWI. BWI gives Southwest chief financial officer Gary Kelly a lot of choices on how to build the airline, one of the few carriers with expansion plans this year.
Typically, each of Southwest's 59 cities get a slow but steady sprinkling of short-, medium- and long-haul routes to increase traffic.
BWI has been on a faster track. The latest milestone was introduced Monday night, when Southwest inaugurated its second transcontinental route – BWI to San Jose, Calif. Baltimore also is home to the airline's other coast-to-coast flight – to Los Angeles. Southwest is simply "connecting the dots" between its newer East Coast cities and its well-established West Coast airports, Mr. Kelly said.
In many ways, BWI provides a blueprint for Southwest's growth, tapping the demand for low fares in the East and funneling those passengers to its longtime strongholds in Florida and the West.
"Baltimore offers tremendous results for us so far, and it has tremendous potential," Mr. Kelly said.
But will it grow to be Southwest's top town?
"Right now, we don't know which city will be the largest," he said.
Mr. Miller, the station manager, sounds more confident and maintains a friendly rivalry with his Southwest colleagues in Phoenix and Las Vegas. "The demand is here for us," he said.
Travelers already think of BWI as the "low-fare" airport because of Southwest's marketing, Mr. Wiedefeld said, but the airport would be growing even without it.
"The market is always going to be here – airlines will want to be here," he said.
BWI, six miles south of Baltimore, draws 44 percent of its passengers from the fast-growing suburbs in Maryland and northern Virginia. About 8.5 million people live within easy driving distance of BWI, and it's a wealthy slice of America. BWI officials estimate the airport is surrounded by $302 billion worth of buying power, making it the No. 4 air market in the country. And Southwest is luring fliers to BWI from as far away as Philadelphia to the north and from Richmond, Va., to the south, both two hours or more from the airport.
Passengers such as Lynne Trost reflect Southwest's regional pull at BWI. Ms. Trost drove past two airports – Dulles and Washington's Reagan National Airport – on Sunday, driving almost an hour to reach BWI. "I've got a girlfriend who works for Delta, and she was trying to get me on them," Ms. Trost said while waiting for a flight to Nashville, Tenn. "I said I was going on Southwest no matter what. Southwest is comfortable for me.
But Southwest's long-haul flights may not be comfortable for everyone. Competing carriers show off their best food service on transcontinental flights because the long-haul routes have been the best source of rich fares from business fliers. When flights go longer than four hours, hungry passengers can get restless.
But Southwest, at the urging of chairman Herb Kelleher, "stayed true to who we are," said Donna Conover, executive vice president of customer service. Its transcontinental flights – just like all its others – offer no meals. But there are three beverage services, and Southwest's traditional bags of peanuts is supplemented with a "snack pack" that features Cheese Nips and Oreo cookies.
The carrier said it's gotten few complaints.
"People know what to expect from us," Ms. Conover said. Also, as large carriers have cut costs and service, passengers have come to expect no warm meals on even the longest flights. What's alarming for large carriers such as Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. is that Southwest's transcontinental service could siphon their best customers.
Given the choice of paying more than $1,000 to fly cross-country on a major network carrier or $299 on Southwest, corporate traveler managers on the East Coast are making some business fliers connect at BWI to save money. About 20 percent of Southwest's BWI passengers make a connection, a bit below Southwest's average at other cities, Mr. Kelly said. Southwest prefers to appeal to local travelers who want nonstop service.
Going head-to-head with Southwest isn't an option for network carriers such as US Airways, consultants Phil Roberts and Michael Roach said in their recent study of BWI for Unisys R2A. Saddled with far-higher costs, US Airways saw its dominance at BWI melt away as Southwest invaded over the last decade. US Airways once served 63 cities from BWI; it now flies only to its three hub airports from there. Fortunately for big carriers, Southwest rarely launches service at large airports because it's not able to load and unload planes as quickly as its needs to. Also, Southwest likes to find secondary airports that are easier to get to than centrally located metro airports.
"Baltimore's a very fertile area for us because the area is so heavily populated," Mr. Kelly said. "At any given point we're going to have more demand than we can satisfy. But with the expansion there, I think we're going to be in very good shape."
PS: Congratulations to all the poolies going to Dallas, you're gonna be amazed.
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
BALTIMORE – Ten years ago, Southwest Airlines wasn't here. Two years from now, Baltimore could be the low-fare carrier's biggest city.
And the eyes of station manager Mike Miller twinkle when he reports that there are days when Baltimore/Washington International Airport has more Southwest passengers than Phoenix or Las Vegas, long the airline's No. 1 and No. 2 cities, as measured by daily flights. "This is the hot station," said Mr. Miller, who ran Southwest's operations in Orlando, Fla., before coming to Baltimore a year and a half ago.
His timing was good. Baltimore/Washington International – known as BWI – is building a $1.8 billion terminal that will add 26 gates by 2005. Southwest will take all of them.
"Really, this is going to end up as the pre-eminent airport on the Eastern seaboard," Mr. Miller said. BWI also is among the fastest-growing airports anywhere, adding 5 million passengers in the last four years and surpassing Dulles International Airport, 60 miles to the west in northern Virginia, in traffic. Dallas-based Southwest is responsible for the breakneck pace. A decade ago, US Airways flew the bulk of fliers here. Now in bankruptcy, it flies less than 10 percent while Southwest has grabbed 48 percent of BWI's travelers.
"Obviously, Southwest's presence here has made a difference," said Paul Wiedefeld, executive director of the Maryland Aviation Administration, which manages BWI. BWI gives Southwest chief financial officer Gary Kelly a lot of choices on how to build the airline, one of the few carriers with expansion plans this year.
Typically, each of Southwest's 59 cities get a slow but steady sprinkling of short-, medium- and long-haul routes to increase traffic.
BWI has been on a faster track. The latest milestone was introduced Monday night, when Southwest inaugurated its second transcontinental route – BWI to San Jose, Calif. Baltimore also is home to the airline's other coast-to-coast flight – to Los Angeles. Southwest is simply "connecting the dots" between its newer East Coast cities and its well-established West Coast airports, Mr. Kelly said.
In many ways, BWI provides a blueprint for Southwest's growth, tapping the demand for low fares in the East and funneling those passengers to its longtime strongholds in Florida and the West.
"Baltimore offers tremendous results for us so far, and it has tremendous potential," Mr. Kelly said.
But will it grow to be Southwest's top town?
"Right now, we don't know which city will be the largest," he said.
Mr. Miller, the station manager, sounds more confident and maintains a friendly rivalry with his Southwest colleagues in Phoenix and Las Vegas. "The demand is here for us," he said.
Travelers already think of BWI as the "low-fare" airport because of Southwest's marketing, Mr. Wiedefeld said, but the airport would be growing even without it.
"The market is always going to be here – airlines will want to be here," he said.
BWI, six miles south of Baltimore, draws 44 percent of its passengers from the fast-growing suburbs in Maryland and northern Virginia. About 8.5 million people live within easy driving distance of BWI, and it's a wealthy slice of America. BWI officials estimate the airport is surrounded by $302 billion worth of buying power, making it the No. 4 air market in the country. And Southwest is luring fliers to BWI from as far away as Philadelphia to the north and from Richmond, Va., to the south, both two hours or more from the airport.
Passengers such as Lynne Trost reflect Southwest's regional pull at BWI. Ms. Trost drove past two airports – Dulles and Washington's Reagan National Airport – on Sunday, driving almost an hour to reach BWI. "I've got a girlfriend who works for Delta, and she was trying to get me on them," Ms. Trost said while waiting for a flight to Nashville, Tenn. "I said I was going on Southwest no matter what. Southwest is comfortable for me.
But Southwest's long-haul flights may not be comfortable for everyone. Competing carriers show off their best food service on transcontinental flights because the long-haul routes have been the best source of rich fares from business fliers. When flights go longer than four hours, hungry passengers can get restless.
But Southwest, at the urging of chairman Herb Kelleher, "stayed true to who we are," said Donna Conover, executive vice president of customer service. Its transcontinental flights – just like all its others – offer no meals. But there are three beverage services, and Southwest's traditional bags of peanuts is supplemented with a "snack pack" that features Cheese Nips and Oreo cookies.
The carrier said it's gotten few complaints.
"People know what to expect from us," Ms. Conover said. Also, as large carriers have cut costs and service, passengers have come to expect no warm meals on even the longest flights. What's alarming for large carriers such as Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. is that Southwest's transcontinental service could siphon their best customers.
Given the choice of paying more than $1,000 to fly cross-country on a major network carrier or $299 on Southwest, corporate traveler managers on the East Coast are making some business fliers connect at BWI to save money. About 20 percent of Southwest's BWI passengers make a connection, a bit below Southwest's average at other cities, Mr. Kelly said. Southwest prefers to appeal to local travelers who want nonstop service.
Going head-to-head with Southwest isn't an option for network carriers such as US Airways, consultants Phil Roberts and Michael Roach said in their recent study of BWI for Unisys R2A. Saddled with far-higher costs, US Airways saw its dominance at BWI melt away as Southwest invaded over the last decade. US Airways once served 63 cities from BWI; it now flies only to its three hub airports from there. Fortunately for big carriers, Southwest rarely launches service at large airports because it's not able to load and unload planes as quickly as its needs to. Also, Southwest likes to find secondary airports that are easier to get to than centrally located metro airports.
"Baltimore's a very fertile area for us because the area is so heavily populated," Mr. Kelly said. "At any given point we're going to have more demand than we can satisfy. But with the expansion there, I think we're going to be in very good shape."
PS: Congratulations to all the poolies going to Dallas, you're gonna be amazed.
Last edited:
