The Air Transport Association yesterday said it expects a record 16.3 million travelers during the Thanksgiving holiday, traditionally the busiest period of the year. ATA officials noted that taxes and fees on air travel also are at an all-time high, making U.S. airline passengers one of the most heavily taxed groups of travelers in the world. According to ATA, the federal tax and fee burden on a typical $200 domestic round-trip ticket is $52, or 26% of the ticket price. For the average American family of four traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, this federal "turkey tax" amounts to $208.
Southwest is once again boosting our service at Chicago Midway. With the delivery of five additional Boeing 737s in the first half of 2005, we will add five new flights (two new nonstop cities and three flights to existing nonstop cities) at our rapidly growing MDW operation beginning March 17.
With today's announcement (and the previously announced service to begin in the first quarter of 2005), we will have 166 daily nonstop departures to 32 cities with additional direct or connecting service to 26 cities.
Good news - we have taken all of the internal and external feedback from not printing the Oct. Flight Schedule into consideration and have decided to move forward with printing the January flight guide. We will continue looking for ways to be creative, innovative, and aggressive in keeping costs down that are associated with printing the flight guide (selling advertising space for example) and will utilize whatever resources available to manage the budget associated with the flight schedule.
Southwest is once again boosting our service at Chicago Midway. With the delivery of five additional Boeing 737s in the first half of 2005, we will add five new flights (two new nonstop cities and three flights to existing nonstop cities) at our rapidly growing MDW operation beginning March 17.
With today's announcement (and the previously announced service to begin in the first quarter of 2005), we will have 166 daily nonstop departures to 32 cities with additional direct or connecting service to 26 cities.
Good news - we have taken all of the internal and external feedback from not printing the Oct. Flight Schedule into consideration and have decided to move forward with printing the January flight guide. We will continue looking for ways to be creative, innovative, and aggressive in keeping costs down that are associated with printing the flight guide (selling advertising space for example) and will utilize whatever resources available to manage the budget associated with the flight schedule.
