So…if we announced all of this yesterday, you’d think it was an April Fool’s joke. BUT IT’S NOT! We’ve just unveiled lots of service adjustments in the Summer/Fall 2012 schedules.
Headline News: Southwest is adding THREE new cities! Effective August 12, Southwest will begin daily service at Akron-Canton (CAK) and Dayton, Ohio (DAY). At Akron-Canton, we’ll begin with two daily roundtrips to Chicago Midway and a daily roundtrip to Denver alongside AirTran’s 10 daily flights to five markets. At Dayton, we’ll begin with one daily roundtrip to Denver alongside FL’s eight daily flights to four markets. Then, on September 30, we’ll begin service to Iowa’s Capital—Des Moines (DSM)—with two roundtrips to Chicago Midway, effectively converting that airport to the Southwest brand. The new Southwest service will offer Customers in Ohio and Iowa fantastic access to the rest of the Southwest network.
We also unveiled a number of other schedule changes. On June 3, we’ll shift the one remaining AirTran flight between Milwaukee and Denver to Southwest, giving us three daily Milwaukee-Denver roundtrips! We’ll also add two AirTran roundtrips daily in the Atlanta-Houston and Atlanta-Chicago Midway markets, and one AirTran roundtrip between Atlanta and Baltimore/Washington, Denver, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Southwest also will add one new seasonal nonstop flight between St. Louis and Panama City Beach, FL (where “Everyone Can Party!”) and between Austin and Portland, Ore., as well as an additional nonstop between St. Louis and Boston and between Dallas and Austin.
Starting August 12, in addition to our new service to Akron-Canton and Dayton, we’ll be shifting one roundtrip daily from Southwest to AirTran between Atlanta and Los Angeles, Chicago Midway, and Phoenix, as well as adding AirTran frequency between Atlanta and Boston, Baltimore/Washington, and Houston Hobby. We’ll also shift one roundtrip from AirTran to Southwest between Milwaukee and both Las Vegas and Phoenix. We’re also implementing similar service swaps in numerous markets effective September 30, in addition to our new service at Des Moines.
These schedule changes mark the first time that we’ve shifted existing, out-for-sale service between the Southwest and AirTran networks, which will go a long way toward aligning both networks to provide even better Customer access (note: if you have reservations on service that’s affected, we’ll contact you very soon!). Of course, we’re also incredibly hard at work to make the ultimate in network alignment possible— allowing Customers to fly across the Southwest and AirTran networks! We’re making progress, but it’s a very large job, since neither Southwest nor AirTran’s reservation system had the capability to connect the networks prior to the acquisition. Hopefully we’ll have the capability ready to roll out to our Customers in 2013. Until then, again—welcome to Southwest, Akron-Canton, Dayton, and Des Moines. Have a great day, everyone!
Comments
I am very excited to have Southwest @ the CAK airport!!! I will certainly take advantage of the flights to Chicago Midway. Hopefully, you will soon include flight to Birmingham Alabama!
PLEASE, please, please come to MADISON, WISCONSIN!
What about going into Harrisburg, PA & Marquette, MI?
Buy more Gate space at Washington Dulles so you can offer us more Dulles Flights!
What have I gained with the addition of Des Moines though? For example I need to make three flights between Boise and Des Moines between Oct 1 and Dec 1 and if what the scheduling through the website is telling me and reading through here I will still be stuck flying through Delta or United a fair amount more.
Will there be any chance to make these flights from Boise to Midway to DSM? Or will it only be DSM to Midway?
Little Rock--Atlanta, to open up Florida and the Northeast. And another section to PHX before USAirways or Spirit step in.
Thumbs up for the Houston Hobby F.I.S. proposal!
Will u be having flights between Atlanta & Savannah soon?
Please consider adding more business destinations from Nashville(ie.Boston, NYC, Charlotte and Atlanta). If you want business travelers these are routes you need to have.
Will you have flights from Texas to Memphis soon?
Good to know of your changes, but I am still very disappointed about the drop of the Seattle-Spokane connection. I used it regularly for work and personal travel--and really miss SW service. In my opinion, connection and work travel is much more common between Seattle-Spokane than to Portland. I have been a SW Reward customer since 2005. I will be eager to see if I can connect from Spokane to Dayton--have a partial flight earned, but my primary route has been cancelled!