LUV overbids eveyone to win 54 DCA slots
 

Southwest Airlines Bringing New Service, More Low Fares To The Nation's Capital

CARRIER AGREES TO PURCHASE SLOTS TO PROVIDE MORE THAN TWO DOZEN ADDITIONAL DAILY DEPARTURES AT WASHINGTON REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT BEGINNING THIS YEARDALLAS, Jan. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) today confirmed it has been notified of its winning bid in an auction for 54 slots?allowing 27 additional daily flights?that will bring more competition to Reagan National Airport, three miles from downtown Washington, D.C. Details of the carrier's bid to acquire divested slots remain confidential under terms of the deal and are subject to final approval of the Department of Justice and completion of customary written agreements. The additional slots will translate to an increase in Southwest's service at Reagan National from 17 daily departures to 44 daily departures. The carrier plans to announce destinations, schedules, and fares for the additional flights later this quarter and anticipates it will begin flying in the third quarter of 2014.
"Consumers who appreciate the value and reliability that Southwest and our People deliver are the real winners in this deal," said Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines Chairman, President, & CEO. "With Southwest's all-Boeing 737 fleet, we will provide Reagan travelers with more choices, lower fares, and great Customer Service. Reagan has long been a convenient but high-fare airport. Southwest plans to change that by bringing much needed competition to the nation's capital."
The slots that Southwest will purchase at Reagan National became available as a result of a settlement of litigation last Autumn by the U.S. Department of Justice against the merger of American Airlines and US Airways. In a separate development, Southwest recently announced new service between Reagan National and Kansas City International Airport beginning Feb. 1, 2014.
In addition to Southwest's presence at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Southwest offers the greater Baltimore/Washington region more than 200 daily departures from Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI) to nearly 60 cities and, beginning on July 1, 2014, will offer new daily service on Southwest between BWI and Aruba, The Bahamas, and Jamaica, launching a new international chapter for both the carrier and Maryland's largest airport.
ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
In its 43rd year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 45,000 Employees to more than 100 million Customers annually. Southwest is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded and operates the largest fleet of Boeing aircraft in the world to serve 96 destinations in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and five near-international countries via its wholly-owned subsidiary, AirTran Airways. Southwest is one of the most honored airlines in the world, known for its triple bottom line approach that takes into account the carrier's performance and productivity, the importance of its People and the communities it serves, and its commitment to efficiency and the planet. The 2012 Southwest Airlines One Report? can be found at southwest.com/citizenship.
From its first flights on June 18, 1971, Southwest Airlines launched an era of unprecedented affordability in air travel described by the U.S. Department of Transportation as "The Southwest Effect," a lowering of fares and increase in passenger traffic wherever the carrier serves. On every flight, Southwest offers Customers the first two pieces of checked luggage (weight and size limitations apply) and all ticket changes without additional fees. Southwest's fleet consistently offers leather seating and the comfort of full-size cabins, which are equipped with satellite-based WiFi connectivity, free live TV, and a new, sustainable cabin interior. In May 2011, Southwest acquired AirTran Airways and, by the end of 2014, will complete the full integration of AirTran's domestic network into Southwest. With 41 consecutive years of profitability, the People of Southwest and AirTran operate more than 3,600 flights a day. Southwest Airlines' frequent flights and low fares are available online only at southwest.com or by phone at 1-800-I-FLY-SWA.
SOURCE Southwest Airlines
For further information: Brad Hawkins, 214-792-4413, [email protected]; Multi-Media Assets and other Company news at swamedia.com; Media Relations Team: 214-792-4847

When I read the article, I do not read it as Southwest has gotten all 54 slots. Maybe my math is bad.:rolleyes:

WN won 54 slots = 27 departures and 27 arrivals
B6 won 24 slots = 12 dep/arr
B6 also won 16 slots (8 dep/arr) that they previously leased from AA
There are still 10 slots (5 dep/arr) up for grabs, my guess is VX will get them

There were 104 slots open for grabs and WN got over half of them.

17 plus 27 is 44.

27 times to is 54... they got all 54 slots. Unbelievable.

I'm sure they'll restore service to the cities losing out from the merger! Things are looking up Jacksonville, NC!

This is great. Now nobody will be able to make money out of DCA. Yet another sizable market about to be destroyed.

I wonder if ATC will be willing to clear them direct through P-56. Who knows what a lot of pizza parties can get you...

Not all of them, half of them. Flyby1206 had it right. JetBlue gets 12 Slot Pairs (24 Slots)

Southwest wins bid for 27 more flights at DCA airport

"It appears that there remain 5 slot pairs unaccounted from the 52 DCA slot pairs being divested by American and US Airways. Of those 52, Southwest now has 27 and JetBlue 20 (the 12 it announced this morning plus 8 it had already been leasing from AA and gets to keep on a permanent basis, per the DOJ settlement)."

never mind. Deleted

What happened to the splits of 14/14/12/4?

And who's getting the last 5?

Those politicos and heavy-rolling lobbyists are gonna LUV not having first class service! ;)

Enjoy the delays!!! :D

So what is going to be more entertaining?


1. SWA Expressway visual 31 LGA (with or without nose gear collapse)
2. SWA River Visual 19 DCA (With post landing Patomac segment)
3. Anywhere in Central / South America: land in the available distance.

That's harsh!

What delays??? The slots have simply been reallocated. No one is adding any more flights than were previously operated.

Good for LUV, why all the hate?

Actually I think this is a good thing for the most part. SWA will bring in mostly 130-ish seat planes into the market with sky high labor costs. After the new wears off the over advertised fare sales, they won't be able to gut yields out of that market at all. So in a way its significant fare protection for most markets. Which, by the way, will be more and more connecting. Fewer point to point routes on half empty RJ's means more connections through other hubs on mainlines.

JB will trash yields for a while, but even they will only trail a reasonable fare baseline by so much, and most or all of their routes will be to their hubs or FL.

Just like Parker warned, this puts the squeeze on the remaining smaller market directs, which the legacies will still dominate, while flooding an already saturated market with cheap seats to FL. The only real negative for the legacies is that JB will come in and absolutely nuke the yields on the Shuttle. Even if they do NYC to JFK, they will destroy the yields. There is clearly not the demand for 3 shuttle products, so someone will have to surrender. JB will bet that someone is DL and they may be right, but it appears DL may have a counterpunch after all.

Sweet. More service to saturated markets of MCO, FLL, TPA, Etc...... How long before they complain and request a route to be granted outside of the perimeter because they think they're exempt from all rules because they're Southwest?

Oh well.... Doesn't make sense with BWI so close to DCA since this still isn't much to do more then hub flying.... And as said small/medium markets lose out because of our dumb DOJ.

I find their trademark company signature Texas Orange intimidating towards my manhood.

Problem with that is the beyond the perimeter slots are uber competitive. Look at the last 4 that were awarded.

Because they are known kitten killers! :eek:

I wish they'd start service to Key West, that place is over run with feral cats and could use some help to thin the herd! :D

What is the counterpunch?

Possibly bringing shuttle back to mainline, actually fighting for it, and load/capacity dumping on routes ourselves, finally, while actually fighting for a market instead of automatically yielding it to the endless growth mode airlines. Its still too early to call it a trend vector yet, but DL appears to be turning the "capacity dicipline" freight train around and gearing up to do serious battle with competitors that DL can easilly afford to bleed out while still making significant profits. Refinery and debt interest savings alone can fund one hell of an industry battle while preserving profits.

I very much doubt that we are about to get into a shuttle operation from DCA to LGA/JFK.

I am sure we might add some flights to BOS in addition to what we have but they seem to be thinking, CHS, JAX, PWM, BDL out of DCA
I am not sure we are an endless growth mode airline, but what would you have us do sit around and wait for Delta to kill us?
I guess we will see soon.

That's a ridiculous presumption. SWA has the fewest employees per aircraft and highest yield, lowest net long term debt. Of course they can afford to come in with affordable fares. And they will make money doing so too.

Because they got the slots under false pretenses.

I'd be suprised if JB did very many of those types of routes. Current markets served by a couple RJ's would see a capacity orgy of several times current volume. For the 10 years after 9-11 legacy airlines would automatically gift cpacity to JB out of CASM fear with very few exceptions (ATL was fought for, and a brief attempt with the idiotic Song experiment but they waived the white flag on that one pretty easilly). JB's order book is still staggering, and there are others as well (VX, Spirit, etc not to mention the never ending ponzi scheme start up attempts) and while some of the growth is in botique niche markets even much of that indirectly assaults the yields of legacy networks one way or another. There's not enough room for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of growth narrowbodies from JB and others not even counting the inevitable overly ambitious widebody order from JB and/or SW one day.

JB has to grow to survive and up until very recently their growth has been relatively uncontested. Yes ATL was fought for and CMH/BNA imploded on their own from internal issues, but JB was feared and bowed down to and absolutely given NYC and BOS while the legacies stood with one foot in the air and the other on a banana peel on a tight rope. The pendulum has swung way, way to the other side favoring the legacies, but JB will not, cannot, stop growing. JB knows this which is why they are going "all in" hoping they've reached critical mass and can network in with the dual subsidized Gulf airlines in their fanatic quest to off shore our entire industry, starting with international and "allying" with US airlines only insofar as they need them to reach the next phase of their flag of convienience plan.

The problem with DCA and small markets though, is that they never really were that profitable. So what if a Congressman likes to hop a direct. That is an insignificant drop in the bucket. DL/AA/US were lucky to be able to keep a couple half empty 50 seaters a day on many of those markets. JB adding 300-500+ seats a day into an already marginal market isn't a recipe for success even if the legacies pull out and gift it to them (which they won't, at least not the RJ's that they're paying for anyway).

JB will bulk up the shuttle product, even if they don't call it that. It might not end up being every hour on the hour no matter what, they're could be gaps in service during the slow hours, but they will try. And there simply isn't the demand anymore for 2 airlines doing it on 76 and 100 seaters (DL and US) not to mention JB will absolutely gut the fares in an attempt to make it up in volume, hoping the legacies gift them capacity. I predict they won't, and JB will start a war of attrition that they can't afford to wage. But they have no other choice while they work feverishly to position themselves for merger mania, which is still very much a work in progress.

And because I can still hear the kitten's cries at night.

I'm new to APC..what's up with the kittens and SWA?

We've been asking the SWA guys that for years.

Nobody knows why they kill kittens, but they do.

Do you have a kitten?

If you do...

RUN! :eek::eek::eek:

Nobody knows why they kill kittens, but they do.


Because grown up cats are just too dang fast.

So will Delta be downsizing to make room then?

All those new two class, 76 seat RJ's have to go somewhere...:eek::D

That's the issue. The LCC's are banking on the legacies gifting them capacity, or at the very least forcing someone's hand with merger mania to buy off a competitor.

A year or two ago I would have been very concerned the legacy airlines (very much including SWA) would have yielded to the young buck marketshare poachers but the tide had apparently turned. Legacies have hit critical mass where they can bury an insolent LCC or two (each) on any and all competing routes and still post big profits over all.

An insolent LCC?
So in your world Lcc's should really not exist right?
I kind of liked your other posts but this is just a very arrogant position.
Good thing you work for a legacy seems you fit the mold well.
Now I have to go and wait for my insolent airline to be killed by a legacy, it was fun while it lasted.

It'll be a swift death. Don't anticipate the pain. Just close your eyes. The metal's fairly thin and a little cold. It happens to all of us at so e point. Good luck!

**************

May you be furloughed ANOTHER several years ...

Lcc's harm the industry, they act as an anchor for wages and for the airlines.

OK... so what is the solution then? It is retarded to blame the pilots that are working there. None of them are doing anything different than you or I did, or would be doing if we were in their shoes. Arrogance doesn't even touch the surface of some of the posts on here.

That is correct to a degree. There just aren't any more point to point markets where a start up can get a foothold in the industry. Even the poster child for point to point is now interested in markets that historically were not even on their radar. (DCA? Really??? How far out of their model is THAT?) I think the term "insolent" is over the top, but I get what you are saying. It is going to be much much harder for startups from here on...

Same could have been said for US Airways the past decade, no.? I know all about the MOU rates and the bright future you appear to have ahead over at Airways but LCCs are not to blame for the "legacy" airlines mess post 9/11. It's pretty F'ng laughable to see guys here joke about an airline going out of business when their airline was literally on the brink of extinction a few months ago. How funny would it be then? The amount of douchebaggery displayed by a lot of you guys is comical

(Yeah yeah, I've had plenty of douchey comments I know)