The press release announcing these changes uses the word "productive" four times. Hmm...

Thanks for the heads up Dario.
Brian

Great addition MHT-FLL. Here in Manchester we're most certainly glad to have a nonstop to Ft. Lauderdale...our first to eastern Florida and a great service for cruise-bound New Englanders. Our casualties will be one nonstop each to Orlando and Baltimore, but this is a shrewd trade and one we're happy to make.

There are direct flights between AUS and PHL. There are direct flights between PHL and PIT. Is there a reason why there are no AUS-PIT flights through PHL?

Where's the Chicago to Jacksonville, Fl, The Washington Dulles to Nashville, the Philadelphia to Detroit, the Raleigh to Houston,, the Saint Louis to Nashville(new concept), the Philadelphia to Buffalo, the Oakland to Saint Louis, the Kansas City to Houston, the San Francisco to Seattle and the CHARLOTTE,North Carolina's

With Charlotte being one of the fastest growing airports in the country, why not take part in it. Just think of how lucrative a Charlotte-Philadelphia could be or how about Charlotte paired with the cities of Chicago, Tampa, Orlando, Nashville, Houston or Baltimore.

US airways can't have keep their customer's happy nor their very own employees. Why not expand where the money is at literally?

Seasonal service is a big change and it sounds very exciting. Should we expect more extensive seasonal shifts in years to come? Are seasonal shifts expected to be May and November? I'm glad to see that no routes were cut in the new schedule. That's a pretty impressive rampup in Denver; it will be exciting to watch since there's lots of competition there. Thanks for the post and for your endless work smoothing schedules--fascinating stuff for this airline geek.

I hope you find another destination like Denver.

Hi, everyone! Here are a few responses to your comments.

J, we always look at new markets via meetings with the airports, including GSP. And you never know what can happen!

Chris, we usually don't "bend" itiineraries back more than 110 degrees or so--and AUS-PHL-PIT would be way, way over that limit. It might be better to try and give you a PIT onestop via MDW. It'd be much more direct and less circuitous!

Chuck, for question #1, a lot of times it depens on what happens the rest of the week. If a flight flies, say, Dallas-Houston-Harlingen during the week, but on a Saturday the Dallas-Houston flight goes on to Orlando instead of Harlingen, we have to change the flight number of either the DAL-HOU or the HOU-HRL legs. Hope that makes sense! As for #2, a LOT of factors go into flight numbers. The full routing of that flight may have changed, for example--instead of Philadelphia-Chicago-K.C,-Denver-Vegas-San Diego, in a new schedule it may go Philadelphia-Chicago-K.C.-Phoenix-Ontario-Sacramento. Our optimization system would would likely change the flight number. Or, we have very strict rules governing how close in time flight numbers that sound alike can be. For example, we wouldn't want flight 1866 and flight 1856 arriving or departing at an airport close to each other to make air traffic instructions more easily understood. GREAT questions!

Keith, we're watching all of those markets....and good things come to those who wait. :)

Cori, if you've already bought your tickets, you're fine. Our changes were for the summer months, which we just put out for sale.

Robert, seasonal service *is* exciting. And we'll see if things get more radical!

Don, again--you never know what can happen. LAS-FLL could be good for us. However, until then--enjoy the onestop, no-change service we offer with a quick stop in TPA!

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone!

How about a nonstop BWI-PDX

As an executive and president of a software company I've been proud to encourage our employees to ride and book flights via Southwest for the last 8 years. That has changed as I've seen the cheese get moved to the back of the bus. I'm all for change but the change isn't in the correct direction. In fact it sure looks a lot more like the the "current" airline industries. In the last 3 weeks, not only have I experienced delays and "grubblings", I've witnessed 3 long time deciated customers say: "This will be my last time". When cargo becomes more important than customers and fares now 3 times that of Frontier (witness Phx to Den for January 08) and less direct flights with connects that go through major cities, it sure looks like the only thing that is different is the non-assigned seats. I still love the people at SW, in fact, you still know how to hire good people. But the recent change towards more connects and higher fares that truely look like major airlines. I'm sad to say, I've booked 3 flights in last two days with Frontier and Jet blue. This is a very sad moment and a turning point for the last good airlines left in the good ole USA. HERB COME BACK, YOU'RE BUSINESS CUSTOMERS WANT YOU TO LISTEN LIKE YOU USED TO! (Just in case you ever want to listen to a customer, perhaps listing an email on your site would help. You seriously do need to get feed back, before even the worst airlines in the industry, AIR WEST/AMERICA WEST/STILL LOSING MONEY AIRLINES cuts your grass)
This isn't a complaint, this is a cry to go solicit your business customers: Unless I'm unique it takes longer to fly with your company now and costs 30-50% more than this time last year. ps. the new boarding numbers are great..almost reminensent to the numbered cards with the exception we put ourselves in order....well in consectutive number any how. :D

We had great flights pre-Katrina from Louisville, Kentucky to New Orleans through Birhmingham. In November 2007 you put the New Orleans through Birhmingham flights back on with 2 hour lay overs in Birhmingham each way. Now in mid January the Birhmingham flights are not available. You must fly through TPA (Tampa) or HOU (Houston) to get from SDF (Louisville) to MSY (New Orleans) and New Orleans to Louisville. Please Please consider putting some of the old pre-Katrina flights back on. It used to be so enjoyable of a flight. It the flight stopped you didn't even have to get off the plane. Quick stop only to pick up passengers in Birhmingham.

A market you may want to look at is SDF to BNA (Nashville)and BNA to SDF. Nashville has many direct flights to other cities in which Louisville travelers could use. Louisville is a very large growing city and we seemed to get over looked when it comes to travel.

Sincerely,
Tired of driving to Nashville and paying to park!

I hope that SWA management keeps an eye on the possible merger of Delta and NWA. I also know that there was a repeal (@ a year ago) of some old law that had to do with either Houston Hobby and/or Dallas Love Field there by allowing SWA accessibility to fly into either (can't remember which). If the the 2 do consoildate and cut flights here in Memphis that would leave lots of terminals open for another carrier. HINT HINT HINT SWA? Could my dream of SWA in Memphis be on my horizon? This would truly be my dream come true. Imagine no more driving 2 1/2 - 3 hours to LIT or BNA. In the mean time it is still worth the gas (at least for now) and driving time to save soooo much money by flying SWA over flying out of MEM.

Speaking of city pairs, how about going to PNS PENSACOLA FL. That would be nice.

Optimization doesn't seem to be doing much for boise - a smallish, isolated market. I need to get to norfolk this summer, and to my horror when i tried to book my flight, i discoverd that southwest is dropping service between the two (which i don't quite understand, i can't believe there aren't flights that could be connected to get between the two). so now i'm stuck with astronomical prices and terrible flight times on the other airlines.

I tried to book a flight to omaha a while back and got a message then also that boise-omaha service was being discontinued, but now it seems to be back in service. Is norfolk the same? is boise service being dropped for other markets also?

I recently relocated from Philadelphia to Charlotte. For many years, we were held captive by USAirways in PHL. High fares, poor service, etc. When Southwest began service from PHL, everything changed. I never booked a flight without first checking SWA.

Now, I am in Charlotte and feel like the clock has been turned back 10 years. Fares are outrageously high particularly because there are limited options other than USAirways. Ironically, the highest fares I pay are to go home to PHL. Never less than $500. The nearest SWA airport is Raleigh and it is too far to be a realistic option for most trips.

Please consider CLT as a port of expansion. There is a clear gap in the SWA route map and Charlotte would draw passengers from NC and SC.

I can't even fly my family of 5 to Florida for less than $2,000 off-season!

Yes please add Minneapolis as a destination! Please!