Originally Posted by rickair7777

Safe to assume that WN will not continue the codeshare as it stands now. However...WN has pretty much filled it's chosen market niche. Significant future growth will probably require that they branch out into new areas: international, hub-and-spoke, smaller aircraft for smaller markets (and maybe vice-versa).

The only economical way to service many podunk towns is through feed to a hub. SWA has shown extreme discipline and focus by sticking with the 737...and that has probably helped them tremendously. If they now need other types, outsourcing might make more sense for them than other majors (if their pilots will allow it).

So there's a slight possibility that the SKW airtran feed could grow into something much larger in the future. SWA and SKW were actually in serious negotiations about something like this back before the economy tanked in 2008, so it's not just pie-in-the-sky.