SWA News

[SWA/FO]

From the KC Star....
Guys were talking in the lounge today about a "new base" however, I don't think thats the case..but still good news

Posted on Thu, Oct. 17, 2002

Southwest Airlines plans to expand space at KCI
By MIKE RICE
The Kansas City Star

Southwest Airlines plans to expand its space at Kansas City International Airport as part of the terminal renovation project, the city's top airport official told a City Council committee Wednesday.

The expansion, which calls for adding on several feet from the existing terminal toward the airfield, would give Southwest more passenger holding area and baggage claim space.

It would also allow Southwest, the biggest carrier at KCI, to increase its daily flights out of the airport from 75 to 120, Aviation Director Russ Widmar told the council's Aviation Committee.

Widmar said the proposed expansion in Terminal B would add an estimated $7.5 million to the project's cost.

Jill Raines, marketing manager for Southwest Airlines, said the company expects to be asked to bear the brunt of the expansion cost. She said Wednesday night, however, that she did not know what the airline's contribution would be.

Kansas City is the airline's 11th busiest, in terms of daily departures, among the 58 cities that Southwest serves.

The projected cost of the airport's renovation project has already increased from $184 million since the project started in early 2001 to $258.2 million.

Airport officials have attributed the bulk of the increase to additional security measures sought after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to asbestos removal.

Despite the cost increase, Widmar said, the expansion would be a good investment because of Southwest's success nationwide. It is the only large airline that has not had major layoffs since the terrorist attacks.

"I think this could be a major benefit to the city," he said. "I think we would be foolish not to consider it."

When the terminal renovations are completed in 2004, Southwest will have 12 gates in Terminal B. It had already planned to expand most of its space, which includes the ticket counters, passenger holding areas and offices.

Under the new proposal, all of the Southwest area would be expanded, and the passenger holding areas would be contiguous between all 12 gates.

The part of Terminal B that Southwest occupies has not yet been renovated.

Councilwoman Teresa Loar called the proposal encouraging. She said she hoped the airline would pay most of the expansion costs.

"Southwest has a long and outstanding history here at KCI," she said. "If any airline is going to expand, you would expect it to be them."

Southwest Airlines is expected to submit a formal request to the Aviation Committee within a month. The committee will then decide on the issue of funding.

Meanwhile, US Airways Express announced Wednesday that it would stop flying from Wichita to Kansas City on Nov. 3, leaving the two cities without a direct air connection.

Air Midwest, which operates the commuter airline, had already cut the number of daily flights on the route from five to three.

US Airways, based in Arlington, Va., does not have much of a presence in Kansas City anymore, said airline consultant Mike Boyd.

"Nobody was connecting on it anyway," he said.

The route between Wichita and Kansas City used to be a big market for Air Midwest, said Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and chief executive of Mesa Air Group, the airline's parent company. Air Midwest has operated the service using Beech 1900D 19-seat aircraft for more than 20 years.

But recently the airline has been losing more than $50,000 a month on the service, Ornstein said.

The move is "terribly disappointing," Ornstein said. "It's not our business to shrink our company."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[packdog]

Southwest Airlines keeping its eye on Lehigh Valley
By Tom Belden
Inquirer Staff Writer

As Philadelphia officials ponder other ways to generate competition here, a much smaller airport 60 miles to the north - Lehigh Valley, on the Allentown-Bethlehem border - might gain the most coveted prize of all in the air-service game: Southwest Airlines.

Southwest in recent months has scouted Lehigh Valley International Airport, which would tap into the region's air-travel market by intentionally avoiding Philadelphia itself and going to a nearby, underutilized airport, Lehigh Valley officials and aviation consultants say.

Although Southwest says it will not go to any new cities this year and might not go to any new ones in 2003, Lehigh Valley has been on the radar screen of the perennially profitable Texas-based carrier since the mid-1990s.

"Southwest at Lehigh Valley is a question of when, not if," said Robert Hazel, vice president of GCW Consulting in Arlington, Va., and a former US Airways vice president in charge of airports. "US Airways has always worried about it."

Southwest also has studied Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, and Trenton-Mercer County Airport in Ewing Township, but industry experts believe those airports are less likely than Lehigh Valley to get flights first.

And what about Philadelphia as a Southwest city?

That would not be consistent with the careful strategy Southwest has followed for 30 years. It avoids going head-to-head with another major airline at the other carrier's hub, and particularly avoids airports as congested as Philadelphia, Hazel and other consultants said.

Lehigh Valley International Airport has the terminal facilities, parking spaces and highway access to handle a wave of new traffic, executive director George Doughty said.

"We could accommodate Southwest, AirTran or JetBlue [Airlines] with ease, with a significant amount of service," he said.

Southwest officials have been at Lehigh Valley in the last three months, the most recent of periodic visits they have made over the last six years or so to check out its facilities, he said.

On the most recent trip, a handful of people from Southwest came to look at the airport's eight jet boarding gates, bag-claim belts, ticket counters and other facilities, Doughty said.

On other visits, they talked about marketing the airport and a variety of other topics, he said.

"They've never said to us, 'Go away,' " he said. "It's always a continuing dialogue."

Passengers from Bucks and Montgomery Counties are among those who already have discovered new five-times-a-week flights to Florida from Lehigh Valley by a charter carrier, Southeast Airlines, Doughty added.

Atlantic City also has low-fare service, on Spirit Airlines to Detroit, Florida and South Carolina. And it has another advantage, Atlantic City airport spokesman Gary Israel said.

The airport operator, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, last month hired a consultant to help devise a plan to improve its airfield and expand its terminal, which now has four gates and two baggage-claim carousels, Israel said.

 

[SentryIP]

New Pilot Base?

Hey Poolies,

When I was getting my type rating at HPA last December, the People Department reps who came to talk to us said there were RUMORS of Las Vegas or Kansas City possibly being a new pilot base. This is good news for a change. Take care.

 

[SWA/FO]

yes