WN has not ceased operations in ROC, BUF, PNS or BDL.

 

I should have said out of ATL. And I put the wrong identifier for Bermuda which BDA. But all those routes are gone out of the network in ATL. Which is a good chunk of flying handed over to Delta.

 

Branson was an interesting city for SWA to keep from the AirTran network. It is a great family destination and the number one tour bus destination in the country. The city did not pull its subsidy ( I think they pay about $8 to SWA for every passenger), SWA just decided to reallocate their capital (aircraft) to other markets. With a flat fleet, if you take on other routes (LGA and hopefully DCA), you have to cut somewhere. Load factors were at or above the SWA system-wide average, but perhaps the yields were not there. SWA only served Branson from DAL, MDW and MCO (on weekends), so that isn't much of a feed. AirTran served Branson from ATL, which gave connecting opportunities to anywhere on the east coast. But SWA continues to downsize ATL and hand it to DAL on a silver platter. Now Branson is left with just Frontier service to Denver. The airport is privately funded and has missed 2 bond payments already. I suspect, absent another big carrier coming in, the airport will be in bankruptcy within a year. Anyone want to buy an airport, cheap?

 

Incredibly shortsighted to "cease" at these three, and many/most of the other 17 FATcities.

 

Most were FAT cities but so what. If they can't money or better yet get better yields out of other routes or cities then it's a no brainer. Airtran may have made money in those cities under their cost structure but can't under SWA. If anything it shows good discipline in making sure they run a profitable operation. That's all that matters in the end.

 

Hmm, kinda adds truth to the fact that SWA is no longer an LCC if they cannot make the yields in a market that other LCCs could.

 

SWA hasn't been an LCC for a long time. They are more expensive on numerous routes served by other major airlines.

The SWA LCC legend lives on, however. And they do provide a service level that is attractive to lots of passengers.

 

As a pax, SWA is rarely the cheapest to where I am going.. But if the price is close, I'll go SWA over Coach on DL, UAL, AA, etc.

 

A long time bud of mine who crossed over to SW about a year ago told me they recently bussed 35 pax out of EWY. He says they're limited to about 40 pax with a wet runway. No wonder why they dropped it.

 

What series 737 and what motors? At DL, I routinely carried a butt in every seat out of there including cockpit jumpseater...