SOUTHWEST TO FLY TO ST. OLAF!

> >

Wed, 04/01/2009 - 10:15 — Bill Owen

Okay, just kidding. April Fool’s! Southwest could *never* start service to the mythical hometown of the Golden Girls’ favorite fool, Rose Nylund (although, according to Sophia Petrillo, the matriarch of the Miami foursome, Rose wasn’t a fool—she was “simpleton…but it’s a fine line between simpleton and fool”). Besides, modern jetliners can’t land in St. Olaf….you’d have to land in St. Gustaf and transfer to a bus. *grin*

However, starting May 26, Southwest will add three new nonstops each day between our newest destination—Minneapolis/St. Paul—and Denver, our Mega Station in the Mountains. Southwest has been embraced by the people of Minnesota faster than Hotdish at a Lutheran pot-luck, and we are all VERY excited to add to our nonstop destination list from the Hubert Humphrey Terminal at MSP. The Denver-Twin Cities market is a vibrant one of which we are VERY excited to be a part. As an added bonus, our new Denver service offers our Customers to and from MSP another convenient way to access our huge Western network.

So get ready, you guys—in less than two months Southwest will link up the land of Lefse, Lutefisk, and Lakes with land of Mountains, Mines, and the Mouse Trap (the interchange between I-25 and I-70). It’s all bookable now at southwest.com or via your favorite reservations venue.

And lest I offend or leave out you students and alumni of the very real and amazing St. Olaf University in Norfthfield, MN…let me just say three words in honor of two of my dear friends who are St. Olaf alumni (hey, Carrie and Skluz!)….”UM! YAH! YAH!”

Trackback URL for this post:

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/trackback/2062

Tags:

View bowen's profile

Comments

I liked that it was very funny.

robert starrett — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 10:30

This is outstanding news! This is a route that has been saturated by legacy carriers charging an arm and a leg for years. For me this will provide a much easier transfer option than MDW, at least until WN establishes MSP - PHX routes next ;-). My entire family in Denver just got a text message letting them know when service begins. THANKS SOUTHWEST!

Anonymous — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 10:44

Hilarious post, Bill! I'm so excited for the new service!

Shannon — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 11:17

Bill,
Is there a reason why MSP > PBI was removed from the network? There are several options at 2 connections that would work but do not show up on the schedule. I prefer PBI over FLL because it is much easier to get in and out of and security lines are never more than 5 minutes. Last time I was at FLL, it took 25 minutes to get through security.

I picked June 1 as a random date from MSP > PBI
Flight 35/1280/272
Coming back (I picked same day June 1) Flight 3939/3856/2438 or 203/1047/3504 would work

Or better yet, expand service from PBI as well :)

MarkE — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 11:45

Great news! This really improves Southwest's schedules from MSP to the west, too.

Robert S — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 12:53

Good one.

Thank you for perking up what has turned out to be not a good day.

Mjesf — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 13:56

As a resident of Albuquerque with family in Minnesota, this is great news! MDW is farther from ABQ than MSP is, so being able to connect in DEN will be very welcome!

Jason — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 19:48

Hey, guys, thanks for the comments! Obviously I have a serious addiction to "The Golden Girls." I have several seasons loaded onto my iPhone....but I can watch 'em on flights!

MarkE, we stop selling MSP-PBI in the summer because the Southwest only sells single-connection itineraries. The ones you describe require changing planes twice, and we just don't sell those. Sorry!

Happy booking everyone....and hey, Minnesotans, how 'bout some Hotdish recipes? Those with Macaroni and Cream of Mushroom Soup go to the head of the class!!!!!

Bill Owen — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 20:45

I'd like to throw BNA-ATL(Delta is so awful and we really do need some kind of business shuttle that we can actually rely on and AirTran won't have anything to do with us), CLT, IND & RSW back out there again. I'd also like to suggest BNA-IAD since we only have large plane service to Baltimore and then three other airlines flying regional jets to Washington proper. There's obviously the traffic so why not combine some of these regional jets into a real plane. American in particular does it without connections too which would mean that you would need your connecting pax from BWI to support it either.

BNA — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 00:35

Also, with regard to the RSW service, recently flew from RSW to BNA through MCO and th e SAME people were sitting around me on both flights. What does that tell you? To me that says that are a lot of people going from Nashville to Fort Myers and vice-versa. This is not uncommon either.

BNA — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 00:38

MSP-DEN nonstop? This is Awesome, a brilliant move that will bring great and positive results. Low fares for everyone in the Southwest Airlines Airband network. (SAAN)

Timi — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 03:01

Absolutely LUV having SWA in Minneapolis. Adding non-stops to DEN is a brilliant move! The flights out of MSP have been PACKED FULL since we started and I am hearing great things from the customers!

Anonymous — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 09:02

Bill,

We thoroughly enjoyed your post. Some of us are old enough (?) to easily remember that TV show. Kinda makes more sense as we get older.

I have one comment, however. I would like to urge you to reinstate the AMA-ABQ scheduling. We make that trip many times during the year and now, without calling SWA, we cannot find any flight information for ABQ. We would appreciate anything that could be done to get this route added back.

Thanks..
JHH

Jim Haile — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 10:22

I hope you can expand more soon, maybe a short-haul 90 minute flight to St. Louis? That would be a good alternative airport and less risky in winter months. Both Chicago and Denver can get a heck of a lot of snow.

Anonymous — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 15:55

Just to let u know, there's a Church named St. Olaf in downtown Minneapolis, just take the train from the airport to downtown. http://www.saintolaf.org/

Phillie Garza — Thu, 04/02/2009 - 20:36

I would love to see Southwest add a Minneapolis - Orlando flight!

Anonymous — Fri, 04/03/2009 - 08:40

I'm with Mark E. Why not offer better routs in and out of PBI? I hate flying into FLL! I live 45 minutes North of PBI but have to drive to FLL to get flights (right past PBI)!! I think you are under serving (and estimating) PBI traffic. Not everyone flies to New York or Baltimore. More service to Chicago and then MSP would be nice! I hate flying Northworst up there!

Anonymous — Fri, 04/03/2009 - 19:16

I agree with expanding service to PBI. How about one of the following cities: Nashville, Kansas City, or Houston. There are currently 3 cities in the Mountain and Pacific time zones SWA serves from PBI if you do it in one stop through Tampa. Switching in Baltimore just doesn't make sense to go west.

Anonymous — Sun, 04/05/2009 - 09:15

Was looking at some old schedules of yours today and was suprised to see that you have in fact been making bit cuts in Nashville since 2001 when you had 89 flights a day(I think we're now in the high 70's) so when we see in the paper here that you've always held steady at X flights a day that's not true. Really sad to see that. Yes, it may not be an overnight 60 to 0 kind of thing like American but the fact is that long term year over year cuts and no year over year growth will eventually leave us in the same situation whether it happens quickly or slowly which isn't any better. Don't let old markets disintegrate as you grow in new ones.

BNA — Sun, 04/05/2009 - 13:24

Southwest, I am so excited you are in Minneapolis. I look forward to flying you for the first time from MSP to MDW over Memorial Day weekend. It is about time someone saved us Minnesotans from the stranlgehold NWA and now the New Delta have had on us for so many years. I am already planning on booking another flight to MDW with you guys for early August, and was recently disappointed to learn tha youd don't fly to Palm Springs since you were the first airline I looked at for my flight over Labor Day weekend. Please don't forget about Minneapolis and I look forward to supporting you for many years to come and for you to continue adding new service from MSP.

Anonymous — Sat, 04/18/2009 - 14:29

Post new comment

Southwest Airlines Blog

Nuts about Southwest is all about our Employees, Customers, airplanes, and airports. We really are Nuts about Southwest and we hope that our Readers will share that passion by posting their own comments.

For more information about the blog and participating, please visit our User Guide.