Brace yourselves.
Today Southwest Airlines announced our intention to bid to begin service to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.
Yes. You read that correctly. Southwest plans to pursue a bid to start service to LaGuardia Airport. This isn’t just big news, it’s huge. GINORMOUS! I think h-e-double-hockey-sticks just froze over…and I am certain a number of my friends in this industry have yet to pick their jaws up off of the floor!
For those of you that aren’t familiar with LaGuardia Airport (LGA), it’s the most centrally located of New York City’s three major airports. Flying into or out of LGA is guaranteed to put you in a “New York state of mind,” from the views of the Manhattan skyline on your approach or departure right down to the airport’s name itself—Fiorello LaGuardia helped build the airport in the 1930’s while he was mayor of New York City. Located in the borough of Queens, right on the “scenic” waters of Flushing Bay and close to Shea Stadium, it’s the closest major airport to Manhattan. What Love Field is to Dallas, Hobby Airport is to Houston, and Midway Airport is to Chicago, LaGuardia Airport is to New York City.
In the category of SWA/LGA history, we’ve been asked for as long as I can remember (and I’ve been here 18 years) to add LGA as a destination, but until now it just wasn’t a realistic opportunity. As many of you know, LGA is one of only four airports in America that are slot controlled, meaning you literally have to have a slot (or legal authority) to schedule an arrival or a departure. These slots are specific down to the half-hour that an airline can schedule a landing or takeoff, and are very finite—only a certain amount are allowed in any thirty-minute period. And while you can buy, sell, and trade them, because of the airport’s popularity, LGA slots are in HUGE demand and are seldom available at any price. Further, because they don’t always come in arrival with departure combinations that would enable a Southwest-style operation, being able to secure arrival/departure slots that can be “stitched together” in such a way to enable us to begin enough service to make it economically viable for Southwest wasn’t realistic, let alone easy. We’ve known for years how huge the immediate New York City market was, but we didn’t have a realistic way to shoe-horn ourselves in.
Until now.
You all remember our former codeshare partner, ATA Airlines, who ceased operations in April of this year. They provided service between LaGuardia and our major base at Chicago’s Midway airport (and, for a while, to Houston/Hobby). In the three-plus years we were codeshare partners we got a very good look at the potential of LGA’s connectivity to the Southwest network—but it was like Tantalus’ torture, forever hungry and thirsty but never able to eat or drink. With ATA’s partnership we were able to experience what a great fit LGA would be for Southwest from a revenue and traffic perspective but still weren’t able to serve it with our own People and aircraft. Even after ATA’s demise, we couldn’t immediately try to begin service to LGA (even though our aircraft are perfectly suited to serving LGA) because ATA’s LGA slots were tied up in their bankruptcy proceedings and didn’t immediately become available.
However, in the past month or so, a light was turned on at the end of our LaGuardia-less tunnel. The bankruptcy court in Indiana (where ATA was headquartered) published their procedures to bid on ATA’s remaining business, including their 14 LGA slots—which would equate to 7 daily arrivals and departures at LGA, and are in close enough time proximity to each other to not destroy Southwest’s efficiencies. What today’s announcement means is that we have formally made a bid—which, if approved by the court, will enable Southwest Airlines to be able to expand with our own Red Bellied Birds into a market that we first developed via our ATA codeshare.
Now, again, guys—this isn’t a done deal. At this point it’s only a bid that would allow us to assume ATA's slots, so we’re not ready to talk about where we’ll fly and things like that. But Southwest service to New York’s LaGuardia Airport is now a definite possibility, so you can start spreading the news! Of course, we’ve got a lot to learn about how to schedule, and operate, within a slot-controlled environment—but those should be easy learning curves to climb.
Comments
Bill,
This is great news. As a fellow SWA employee I haven't understood the "backlash" to our codeshare announcements and the accusations that SWA isn't committed to growing with our own planes and employees.
This announcement coupled with MSP starting in March just reiterates we have a very loooong way to go in the Domestic market as we try to accomplish our stated goal: World Domination. There are dozens of places to serve in the US that we as an airline are absent from.
These announcements assure me that Gary is "cautiously aggressive" and in 20 years we'll be thanking him for guiding us through this tough economic time. We might even name a plane after him.....
Adam @ BWI
Exciting news for those who have been looking for Southwest at LaGuardia, and it will be even more fun to see how the industry reacts if the bid is succesful, but what about operational efficiency? Even if the slots can be made to work with Southwest's quick-turn operations, that's assuming the airport itself manages to operate efficiently, which it generally doesnt. There's a reason those in the industry call the airport "La Garbage", and not just because it's built on a former (and slowly sinking into the East River) landfill. The airport isn't exactly known for timely performance on a good day, and in the winter? Fugeddaboutit.
Adam, thanks! This represents an incredible--a historic, to be honest--opportunity for Southwest. We are thrilled to be able to continue to grow our Company, even in extremely difficult economic times.
And Anonymous (what's with you guys not putting your names in the "Your Name" slot on the comment form, anyway???), trust me, we're well aware of the difficulties of operating at LGA. not only has Schedule Planning studied, and visited, the facility at length, we have four, count 'em, four, native New Yorkers in Schedule Planning, including our Director who grew up in Queens less than a mile from LGA. So we know--and we're working to design our schedule in such a way that while it still is Southwest-efficient, and offers convenience to our Customers, it won't degrade the operational performance of the rest of the System. We're doing all we can to be ahead of the curve here. However--what do youse guys think? We're all ears!
Keep those comments coming, folks!
Bill
Wow!!! What another exciting historical moment for our great Company! I can attest, since I have worked in Reservations for 21 years, that LGA is an airport that our Customers have requested over and over again. What an exciting possibility for Southwest Airlines, our Customers and our shareholders!!! I am keeping my fingers crossed that we win that bid!
So when I heard another city was possible, I thought Cincinnati. Just goes to show I'm a little locked into "old" Southwest thinking. ;-)
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sent out an announcement email, to friends and family, with the title, "Holy S&%$" and have received lots of comments with, "YAY!!!" in the response.
Wow!
Huge news! I recently had to fly to visit northeast New Jersey on business, but because Islip was not a practical choice, had to fly another airline. I've got my fingers crossed that the Feds and the court allow this. Of course, the next big speculation... which station (if any) besides MDW gets some flights?
Good Luck!! I hope you're successful in getting slots there. I would fly you to NY!
Bill, if I am reading this correctly, it sounds like SWA is primarily interested in providing MDW-LGA service if the slots can be secured. I would hope that SWA is seriously considering BWI-LGA service for all the Southwest luvers in the eastern part of the country, for whom connecting through Chicago is somewhat unrealistic. Nevertheless, I trust that the smartest minds in the business are working hard to answer all of these questions right now!
I agree. Don't just fly to MDW. BWI is necessary for it to be conveinant for those in the east as MDW makes you fly away from your destination and then have to turn around again and go back while BWI is a straight shot for FL, the SE, and the Midwest.
Bullseye. Not JFK. Not EWR. LGA. Bravo. Today, Willie Sutton must be smiling for Southwest.
If Southwest is true to its goal of attracting the Business Traveler, following Willie's reasoning, the three biggest targets remaining must be NY, DCA and BOS.
Still, silence re DCA and BOS. Re DCA, Item "18" in the official filing that curbcrusher put in FlyerTalk says that the DCA slots were carved out of the bid for ATA. Why? Is Southwest maneuvering for them on another track? Re BOS, what about Mr. Kelly's personal visit to Boston, reported in the airport's "Travel New England" newspaper. It looked like he and the Massport CEO were all but announcing Southwest's landing.
Are DCA and BOS coming soon? If they are, it would be a grand slam. Then Willie Sutton ought to be the guest of honor at Southwest's 2009 Hallowe'en party.
For now, again, bravo.
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