SWA into EWR
 

from a blog this afternoon:

Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines confirmed today that we have entered into a lease giving Southwest access to 36 slots at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey. The lease deal, which is contingent upon the closing of the Continental and United airlines’ merger by November 30, 2010, and certain governmental approvals, would allow us to operate up to 18 daily roundtrip flights at Newark, with some of those flights beginning in March 2011 and a full schedule in place by June 2011. The slots are spread throughout the day and would allow us to integrate Newark service conveniently into our national route network.

"Newark" and "convenient" in the same sentence? It'll be interesting to see what kind of turn times WN incorporates in their new EWR service.

I don't understand why you would sell off slots to your competition at a hub you dominate?

To get government approval for the United/Continental merger.

Or perhaps CAL's management's honest effort to help out all the CAL EWR based commuters (sarcasm intended).

another new city for sw next year. Any opinions if this might tweek next years growth?

I think you're right. I think they may be sensing some trouble waters ahead when trying to seal this merger deal.

In response to the growth conjecture:
I don't think that new destinations and growth are directly correlated at this point in time. SWA is still fat on personnel (pilots) and materiell (aircraft) so any increase in total flying is just going to absorb the slack in the system. Also more destinations don't necessarily mean more flying, in the last year and a half WN has increased the number of destinations but not the number of flights.
If anything, IMHO, this is just an extra point in favor of the -800 case. If mngt was thinking of getting them before it's almost a done deal now that they have once again proven that SWA expantion is going to take place mostly in larger, slotted, markets. Unfortunately the 800 might delay growth (pilot positions) even further.

phl, lga, now ewr, whats next....the apocalypse?

Not any more.

Justice Dept signs off on United-Continental deal
Justice Department says no more antitrust concerns about United-Continental deal



Email
Print
Companies:Continental Airlines, Inc.Southwest Airlines Co.UAL Corporation
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
CAL 21.80 +0.87

LUV 11.13 +0.31

UAUA 20.45 +0.81

Joshua Freed and David Koenig, AP Airlines Writers, On Friday August 27, 2010, 5:59 pm
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- United and Continental airlines are a big step closer to their proposed combination, with the Justice Department saying it has no more antitrust concerns about the deal.

On Friday, the two airlines said they would lease takeoff and landing slots in Newark to Southwest Airlines. The Justice Department says that clears up its main competitive concern.

Shareholders at the two airlines are set to vote on the deal on Sept. 17.