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SWA 8308? Just curious...

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MSNFlier

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 26, 2001
Posts
118
Formerly flew privately out of MSN but relocated to DC/NoVa about two years ago. Sometimes I lurk on Flightaware to see where my old flying club's aircraft have been going. Today I saw Southwest Flight 8308 from PDX to MSN? Apparently, it was the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's football team returning from their Division III football playoff game against Willamette College in Salem, OR. I didn't know SWA did college charters? How common is this for the majors?

I worked on the ramp at Wisconsin Aviation while earning my private in the late 1990s and I remember the UW and other Big Ten football teams would get USA Jet and other lesser-known companies for their charters. I don't recall seeing Northwest, Midwest or other airlines doing those runs.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA8308
 
Formerly flew privately out of MSN but relocated to DC/NoVa about two years ago. Sometimes I lurk on Flightaware to see where my old flying club's aircraft have been going. Today I saw Southwest Flight 8308 from PDX to MSN? Apparently, it was the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's football team returning from their Division III football playoff game against Willamette College in Salem, OR. I didn't know SWA did college charters? How common is this for the majors?

I worked on the ramp at Wisconsin Aviation while earning my private in the late 1990s and I remember the UW and other Big Ten football teams would get USA Jet and other lesser-known companies for their charters. I don't recall seeing Northwest, Midwest or other airlines doing those runs.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA8308

I used to fly for TWA and we always did college charters...money is money.
 
I didn't know SWA did college charters? How common is this for the majors?http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA8308

I've seen Delta doing charters for LSU, and at the regionals, we do charters for basketball teams from big-name schools.

They charge outrageous amounts, so I don't see why SWA would say no.

IMO, it's all about liability. A decade ago, charter companies would've handled most sports charters. But I remember a basketball team in a King Air crashing in the Midwest in a winter storm. The problem was there was no one with deep pockets to sue. The airlines charge lots more, but there's a huge insurance policy for the families to go after in case of a tragedy....
 
All the airlines do them. The rates start at about 10K an hr. for RJ's and go up.
Here at DAL we ran a lot of the World Series teams around in 767's. That is some serious coin for flying in the middle of the night when the airplanes would have been sitting at the gates.
 
That is some serious coin for flying in the middle of the night when the airplanes would have been sitting at the gates.

Did they rent a clown with that extra coin?

Wow, I guess I under-estimated the creepiness of that comment. I've been watching too many Ameritrade ads on CNBC.
 
I remember a basketball team in a King Air crashing in the Midwest in a winter storm. The problem was there was no one with deep pockets to sue. The airlines charge lots more, but there's a huge insurance policy for the families to go after in case of a tragedy....

That team was Oklahoma State and the families did sue.
 
I did a football charter to MEM a while ago. As we were waiting in line to take off for the return leg, someone keyed the mike and asked us if we were doing a charter.

The Captain replied "Nah, proving run for new service."

I wonder what kind of rumors that started.
 
We do tons of college charters. Although we rarely carry the actual team, the college charters are usually the band or the alumni association. We also do many military charters. At least 5 a day.

Also the Dallas-Durango charter bi-weekly is about to restart. Get the ski wax out!
 

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