WingedSig

Gary announced today that Southwest Airlines plans to begin service to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport in March 2009. While we have not released specific service details or a timeline yet, we are planning a modest opening in MSP with initial service to only MDW this spring.

"Minneapolis-St. Paul’s strategic geographic location complements the vast Southwest Airlines network really well,” said Gary. “We have studied and been interested in serving Minneapolis-St. Paul for quite some time, and we look forward to bringing our low fares and legendary Customer Service to the people of Minnesota.”

Gary also reaffirmed that though we may not grow our overall available seat mile capacity in 2009, we do have new schedule planning tools which provide the ability to manage our fleet and to adjust our flight schedule in response to opportunities that present themselves. “Offering service to Minneapolis-St. Paul is an excellent opportunity for us to expand our service to a very popular market,” Gary added.

From Southwest’s home in the Lone Star State, to our newest city in the North Star State, Customers across America will benefit from Southwest Airlines’ new service to MSP.

slyde55

Nice to see the Orange Bandit diversifying the pain a bit...

Winston Smith

Clearly, they are banking on the DAL merger to result in reduced service in MSP--and that the new DAL won't be as predatory as NWA is currently.

I'd venture to guess Richard Anderson would beg to differ.

Good luck, SWA. I give you 2 months in MSP.

Superpilot92

I agree. .

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NWA

quimby

care to put money on that?

contrails

I don't think SWA will get out of MSP two months after going in. That is not how they do things.

Clearly they have thought this out thoroughly like they have with other cities they've entered in the past where another airline has a hub (PHL, DEN, etc.). They would not take the risk if they thought it was not going to be worth it.

I do, however, think that there will not be a large assortment of cities from MSP. MDW was a great codeshare with ATA supposedly, so that'll be there I'm sure, but only a couple other destinations.

It bodes worse for Sun Country than it does for DAL/NWA since Sun Country has nearly 100% O&D traffic whereas many pax on NWA have no other option (people coming and going from places like Missoula, Saginaw, Fargo, etc.).

There is line

Every body gave SWA the same "2 months" when they started service in DEN too. They said it would be impossible to make it in a major's hub where a local low cost was also based. Fast forward 2 years later and SWA in DEN has how many daily flights?
I say DAL/NWA and SunCountry have to worry about MSP a lot more than SWA.

Ferd149

SWA has been in DTW for years but has never grown past just a few flights per day. I agree that they smell more of Sun Country's blood in the water than ours (NWA). Too bad, Sun Country is a class act!

The old joke at NWA (that will be the new Delta joke soon) about our nothern hubs: They're cold, they're dark, but they're ours!

Come on up SWA, what kind of deice fluid ya wanna use.

Ferd

OscartheGrouch

Two Months? I am so afraid I just urinated on myself! For years I have heard how people (passengers) would love to see SWA in MSP. At the very least we will keep you (and DAL) honest. Gouge people for years and see how faithful they are to you!

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Left seat and happy

DeadHead

Or charge rock bottom ticket prices while other major airline carrier pilots bleed.