Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways announced new flights

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) and AirTran Airways (Orlando) released flight schedules for August 12, 2012, through September 28, 2012.

Southwest’s August and September schedules will offer 3,250 daily flights. AirTran’s schedules will offer more than 550 daily flights.

Starting with the Southwest side, WN is adding new nonstop service in nine roundtrip markets. WN will begin three weekday roundtrip flights between both Atlanta and Norfolk and between Atlanta and Louisville (note: these are not markets currently served by AirTran), as well as two weekday roundtrip flights between both St. Louis and New York (LaGuardia) and between St. Louis and San Antonio. With the additional flights, the daily departure count from St. Louis is up to 90. As WN continues the conversion of AirTran service and aircraft to the Southwest brand (after receiving a Single Operating Certificate), we’ll begin new nonstop SWA service that replaces existing service operated by AirTran between:

Atlanta-Seattle/Tacoma: one daily roundtrip
Denver-New York/LaGuardia: two daily roundtrips
Los Angeles-Milwaukee: two daily roundtrips
Milwaukee-New York/LaGuardia: two daily roundtrips (three additional remain on AirTran)
Milwaukee-Seattle/Tacoma: one daily roundtrip

Southwest will also add two more flights between Atlanta and Los Angeles, which will replace two AirTran flights. Milestones abound in this schedule, but one is particularly noteworthy: this marks the very first full city conversion, as Southwest will completely assimilate all AirTran service effective with this August 12 schedule.

Across the rest of the Southwest network, the total number of weekday departures declines from the summer high of 3,422 to 3,250, with a flat aircraft count. While WN increases frequency in seven roundtrip markets (in addition to the Atlanta-Los Angeles increase mentioned above), the airline will reduce nonstop service in 88 roundtrip markets from their summertime highs. WN will eliminate nonstop service in 11 roundtrip markets—some seasonal, some covered by existing AirTran service, and some that are simply no longer profitable in this high-cost environment. The nonstop markets being eliminated are:

Albuquerque-Lubbock
Albuquerque-Midland/Odessa
Albuquerque-Orlando
Baltimore/Washington-Seattle/Tacoma (seasonal)
Ft. Lauderdale-Kansas City (seasonal)
Houston/Hobby-Seattle/Tacoma (seasonal)
Indianapolis-Orlando (service remains on AirTran)
Jackson-Orlando
Jacksonville-Tampa Bay
Milwaukee-Tampa Bay (seasonal—service remains on AirTran)
San Diego-St. Louis (seasonal)

AirTran’s new August/September 2012 Schedule contains a pretty complex set of changes as well. Just like in the Southwest schedule, AirTran’s new schedule reflects the seasonal softening of customer demand as well as the need to “free up” aircraft to go through the conversion (painting) process, so FL will decrease systemwide daily departures from 680 on a typical Friday to 568, a reduction of 112. In addition to the market eliminations announced Friday here as well as the AirTran-to-Southwest conversions listed above, WN/FL are adjusting frequencies upwards in seven markets and downwards in 25 others. Seasonal summer nonstop service in the following 11 markets will be cancelled, although connecting service will continue to be available on either AirTran or Southwest:

Baltimore/Washington-Ft. Myers
Baltimore/Washington-New Orleans
Baltimore/Washington-San Francisco
Baltimore/Washington-Seattle/Tacoma
Charlotte-Orlando
Columbus-Ft. Lauderdale
Flint-Tampa Bay
Ft. Lauderdale-Indianapolis
Grand Rapids-Orlando
Grand Rapids-Tampa Bay
Rochester-Tampa Bay

WN/FL are also eliminating the double-daily roundtrip nonstops between Akron/Canton and Milwaukee and replacing them with two daily Akron/Canton-Chicago-Midway nonstops.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum.

AirTran Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Southwest Slide Show: CLICK HERE