SWA to start KPHL service

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[ My guess, is that this helps to expand their KBWI base, a
launchpad to start KPIT service, and more reason to retrofit their
fleet with winglets for longhaul flights. -Ed. ]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/7118943.htm

Southwest to start Philadelphia flights

By Bob Fernandez and Tom Belden
Inquirer Staff Writers

In a surprise move, Southwest Airlines - the nation's largest discount
air carrier - is expected to announce today that it will begin
scheduled service at Philadelphia International Airport in May,
according to top airport officials.

The entry by Southwest, with initially about 40 daily flights, almost
guarantees that airline passengers long in the grip of high fares in
Philadelphia will see a sharp fall in the price of flights to cities
Southwest serves.

The move also will likely threaten financially ailing US Airways by
drawing business from it and forcing it to lower some fares. The
airline, one of the region's largest employers, with 5,500 workers,
provides service to 58 percent of the passenger traffic here.

City Aviation Director Charles J. Isdell, 53, called the addition of
Southwest the biggest change in the airport "in my lifetime," and said
it likely would lead to vastly more people in the region flying.

Southwest's fares often attract people who otherwise might drive to
their destination or not travel at all, experts say. When Southwest
started service from Baltimore a decade ago, for example, passenger
traffic went up by 300 percent to 800 percent on routes that had only
non-discount service before.

A low-fare strategy has made Southwest - somewhat of a Wal-Mart of the
skies - the second-largest airline in the nation, behind Delta, in
number of passengers carried and the fifth-largest measured by annual
revenue.

City officials plan to hold a news conference today at the airport,
where Southwest chairman Herbert D. Kelleher is scheduled to announce
Southwest's plans. The airline, however, is not expected to disclose
today the routes it will initially fly. Those details are likely to be
released in December, airport officials said yesterday.

The announcement is being made in the last days of a contentious
mayoral race, and is likely to be touted as an example of Mayor
Street's efforts to expand the city's economy. He is in a close
reelection campaign against Republican Sam Katz, who has criticized
Street as lacking an ability to schmooze with businessmen and bring
companies to the city.

Southwest would not comment yesterday on its plans for Philadelphia.

An aggressive push by Southwest into Philadelphia is likely to spell
hardship for US Airways, an airline with strong market positions on the
East Coast but high costs. US Airways' operating costs per passenger
mile flown are 60 percent higher than Southwest's. US Airways also has
reported huge financial losses since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, and has eliminated almost one-third of its workforce
nationwide.

"We are always concerned about US Airways in terms of their viability,"
Isdell said. But "even if we did not want [Southwest] to come in, to
protect US Airways, we have no legal right to stop them."

Southwest's move comes as a surprise for two reasons.

The airline usually does not try to compete in airports that are
entrenched hubs of other major carriers, as Philadelphia's is.

In addition, Kelleher had downplayed the likelihood of the airline
coming to Philadelphia in an interview with The Inquirer seven months
ago. He said that the airport was congested and that such an addition
could throw a wrench in its on-time performance, a source of pride with
the airline.

Philadelphia, like many other cities, had made repeated overtures to
Southwest, imploring it to start service. But this summer, the
Dallas-based company began talking secretly with Philadelphia officials
after gates became available in Terminal E, and those negotiations
moved quickly, Isdell said yesterday.

Southwest initially will use four gates at the end of Terminal E that
had been leased to American Airlines, Isdell said. American
relinquished the rights to those gates in 2002, he said. "That's almost
a windfall of gate capacity we didn't know we were going to have," he
said.

Southwest normally uses each of its airport gates for eight to 10
flights a day, airport chief of staff Jeff Shull said. He said there
was a potential to expand the number of gates available to Southwest if
the airline needed them.

Using Terminal E will enable Southwest to land one of its 737 jets,
unload, board new passengers, and taxi out for takeoff, all in about 30
minutes - its standard flight turnaround at most airports. Terminal E
offers the ability to accomplish that because its is near the east end
of the airport, where jets usually start their takeoff roll.

Southwest, which started as a Texas intrastate airline in 1971, is
highly respected in the airline business because it has perfected a way
to keep operating costs low. It uses only one kind of plane, the Boeing
737, which keeps maintenance and crew-training costs down. It serves no
meals and has no reserved seats, which are among the reasons it can
land and take off again as quickly as it does.

About 80 percent of Southwest's employees are unionized, but it has
labor contracts that make them more productive than workers at many
other airlines. Ticket agents, for instance, may also load bags. Flight
attendants clean aircraft cabins between trips, while other major
carriers have other employees or contractors do it.

Kelleher, a native of Haddon Heights and a lawyer by training, said in
the interview in April that he considered the foundation of Southwest
to be treating employees and customers alike with respect.

"It's the people's airline, you might say," Kelleher said. "That's why
we use the signature line 'a symbol of freedom.' We wanted all our
people to know that every day... they were doing something that was
very important to society, enabling people to fly who otherwise
couldn't afford to fly, or fly more often then they otherwise could."

BL.
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Brad Littlejohn | Email:
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Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.sbcglobal.net/~tyketto
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Smeg. just saw the other thread on this. I'll join the convo
there. Apologies.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.sbcglobal.net/~tyketto
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