Southwest to send jets where the money is

Associated Press
August 23, 2004

DALLAS - Southwest Airlines plans to cut 88 flights in October and shift planes to more profitable routes, mostly in and out of Philadelphia, officials said Monday.

Some flights will be cut and some added at Houston's Hobby Airport, where Southwest is the dominant airline.

Southwest said the Houston reductions are three Hobby-Dallas flights (29 daily nonstops still available); three Hobby-New Orleans flights (17 daily nonstops still available); two Hobby-Austin flights (eight daily nonstops still available); and two Hobby-San Antonio flights (10 daily nonstops still available).

Effective Oct. 4, Southwest said, it will add additional nonstops between several markets. The carrier will add one new daily nonstop flight between Houston Hobby and Oakland (first nonstop between the two cities) and one additional daily nonstop flight between Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway (for a total of four).

And effective Oct. 31, Southwest said, it will add nonstops between Hobby and Orlando, two daily departures (for a total of three daily); and between Hobby and Los Angeles one daily departure (for a total of two daily).

The low-cost carrier said Monday it hopes the nationwide changes will increase revenue by $60 million.

"It's just taking the planes and redeploying them. The capacity remains the same," Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart said. "We should see increased revenue by putting planes in places where lots of people want to fly."

Stewart said the Oct. 31 schedule changes will result in 41 daily flights at Philadelphia, where Southwest began service in May.

The changes will affect about 3 percent of Southwest's schedule of 2,800 daily flights.

Besides Philadelphia, other routes getting additional flights include Chicago to Tampa, Fla., and Baltimore to Nashville, Tenn.

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