Southwest Rapid Rewards - Southwest reduces flights on 92 routes

AP story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/ap_on_bi_ge/us_southwest_airlines_schedule

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines will temporarily halt flights on three routes early next year as it deals with a decline in air traffic and tries to bend its schedule to fit seasonal demand.

The airline published a new schedule Tuesday that covers flights from next Jan. 9 to March 12.

The airline will cut one flight per day on 92 routes and increase service on 42 routes, usually by one trip per day as well.

Southwest also will suspend service between Albuquerque, N.M., and Portland, Ore.; and between Manchester, N.H., and Phoenix, with flights resuming in February. Flights between Kansas City, Mo., and Seattle will stop in January and resume in May, according to the airline.

Chief scheduler Bill Owen said Southwest is adjusting for seasonal travel patterns — the Pacific Northwest routes are stronger in summer, he said — and bolstering service in cities where Southwest has recently started service.

Southwest will add nonstop service from St. Louis to Boston and Minneapolis in January. Southwest began service in Boston and Minneapolis this year.

Dallas-based Southwest, the nation's largest discount carrier, operates about 3,300 flights per day.

Southwest has grown rapidly through most of its 38-year history, but traffic fell 2.2 percent in the first half of this year. While adding service to four new cities in 2009, the airline expects to operate about 6 percent fewer flights this year than in 2008.

Shares of Southwest fell 19 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $7.99 in midday trading.

Where I can find the specific schedules on January 2010? What about FLL will have increase the frequencies? I'm curious where WN will looking for expanding more new routes out of BOS/MSP/MKE?

Thanks for the post! I hadn't realized they were starting non-stops between MSP & STL. I'm now booked through the end of their schedule again. :) It'll take a few days to catch up with all the companion tickets for the spousal unit. ;)

The best part is that the MSP-STL-MSP fare is as low as $119.20. :p

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported WN is cutting the 6 PIT-MDW flights to 4, and that there were 32 RT flight reductions and 42 RT flight increases across the system.

I'm disappointed to see service reduction, especially since the many days PIT-MDW is very full and they don't release any award seats, making overall awards very difficult to get. But Southwest doesn't exist just to serve me and other pitflyers so it is what it is :)

Source: http://post-gazette.com/pg/09244/994721-100.stm

Some routes were axed altogether, which is a disappointment (evidently to not enough however).

There was debate about this thing in the Frontier acquisition thread. I opined WN's daily # of flights would be basically flat post acquisition - they'd add new but take away existing in tandem. This reduction helps my argument.

T-minus X days to yet more WN baggage fees. ;)

Some routes were axed altogether, which is a disappointment (evidently to not enough however).

There was debate about this thing in the Frontier acquisition thread. I opined WN's daily # of flights would be basically flat post acquisition - they'd add new but take away existing in tandem. This reduction helps my argument.

T-minus X days to yet more WN baggage fees. ;)

Yet according to an unsourced post someone @WN has already stated, emphatically, that free bags were here to stay at least through 2010. :rolleyes:

Yet according to an unsourced post someone @WN has already stated, emphatically, that free bags were here to stay at least through 2010. :rolleyes:

WN does not want here to stay for free checked bags. Because those customers who have to pay the 1st & 2nd bags fees. It is no longer to needing free of charge for 1st & 2nd bags fees. I think its time to need to be stepped it up to increased the fees.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported WN is cutting the 6 PIT-MDW flights to 4, and that there were 32 RT flight reductions and 42 RT flight increases across the system.

I'm disappointed to see service reduction, especially since the many days PIT-MDW is very full and they don't release any award seats, making overall awards very difficult to get. But Southwest doesn't exist just to serve me and other pitflyers so it is what it is :)

Source: http://post-gazette.com/pg/09244/994721-100.stm

They're full NOW. Loads aren't the same in Jan-Mar when these changes take effect. We're in the worst recession in years, yet people expect air travel not to slow down a bit more in the dead of winter?

Compared to the axe swinging that's going on with legacy schedules, WN appears to be reacting with a lot of caution & deliberation.

As discussed in this article (http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/SWA08278.xml) from the same time last year, WN has historically had to scale back in this period of time:

Southwest needs more aircraft to operate the same schedule in winter because of weather difficulties

In past years it wasn't noticeable because WN was adding planes, so instead of cutting, they just did not grow as fast during that time of year, but in the past two years this has actually resulted in cuts. Last year the cuts were more than necessary to accomodate the weather, this year's cuts of a few dozen flights on the other hand would appear to be primarilly seasonally driven.

Another factor to consider with flights being taken away and added is the net effect on RPM, if they're taking away more shorter flights but adding more longer flights (which would be generally consistent with WN's trend of increasing stage lengths), that would be an important consideration.

Hi All,

WN will have to be reduction some frequencies for DEN-SEA/LAS/SFO. This is one for DEN-SEA/LAS/SFO. It will may to be resume service on March 12, 2010. Due to schedules change for DEN-SEA/LAS/SFO will be cutbacks.

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/08/31/daily49.html?ana=yfcpc

Let's keep rolling for which specific routes will be announced.

Even if the flight is full year round, it could still be a money loser for Southwest -- even if it makes money, it could make more money elsewhere. I'll let the airline make the decision of what route to fly. However, it still does affect my own purchasing decision. I renewed my CP last year when Southwest came through and had award flights available on holidays I was looking for. Now with reduced capacity in my specific market, I'll probably pass next year. As I said earlier, WN is not just for me so its nothing personal -- just business, both ways!

Love it when STL picks up even more direct flights

Just for fun, I checked ABQ-PDX for a random pair of dates, 2/22/10 to 3/30/10. Southwest is showing one non-stop each way for those dates at a price of $129+tax one way ($277.70 all in round trip). There are also 6 flights on the outbound and 9 more flights on the return. One each of those is a 1-stop-no-plane-change and the others are connecting flights in either PHX, SLC, OAK, DEN or MCI.

For the same dates, Orbitz shows Frontier, United and Delta at $272. ALL of those flights involve a connection (DEN or SLC) and at least on part of the trip, a CRJ, an EMB-170 or a Q400.

So, even if Southwest drops the non-stop between ABQ and PDX, for an extra $5.70, isn't it worth it to fly all your segments on a 737, have no bag fees and no change fees?

It would be great if Southwest connected every city they serve, non-stop with every other city they serve. But, realistically, that just isn't practical. For someone that used to depend on that particular city pair, the loss of the non-stop is not good for them. But, they still can get from ABQ to PDX on WN (now with a stop, maybe with no plane change). If that really is a problem, people can always look at the other carriers if they prefer a variety of aircraft types that include gate checking your carry ons.

We lose ABQ-PDX non-stop, but we gain MSP-STL and in the process, Southwest stays profitable. I don't expect SWA to keep flying a route when there is a better use of the aircraft somewhere else. The fact that they dropped 92 and added 42 (a net loss of 50) speaks to the economy. Did they retire one or more aircraft, or are they using this time to send them in for maintenance, so they are ready to go next summer, when there is greater demand?

Just for fun, I checked ABQ-PDX for a random pair of dates, 2/22/10 to 3/30/10. Southwest is showing one non-stop each way for those dates at a price of $129+tax one way ($277.70 all in round trip).

They suspended ABQ-PDX temporarily. I think it's just ~1/12-2/10, a really dead (and miserable, dark and wet) time in PDX.

Yep definitely noticed that the MDW-SAN & MDW-LAX early AM non-stops have totally disappeared. I now have to look at approx 7hrs to get from MDW to SAN on the 1st flight out because it stops in DEN. Not really my idea of a good time. Then I see that not only does the first non-stop get me in a point that I'm losing half of my day in SAN (which didn't happen before the cuts when I could get in by 9-ish) but the non-stop options are substantially more costly than they have been in the past.
:( Almost makes a few UAL flights looking appealing for the time we planning on going out there.

Sun-Times covered the MDW flight cuts http://www.suntimes.com/business/lazare/1750626,CST-FIN-southwest03.article

Welcome to FlyerTalk, kiwifuz!

They suspended ABQ-PDX temporarily. I think it's just ~1/12-2/10, a really dead (and miserable, dark and wet) time in PDX.

Only Jan 12 to Feb 10? While I can appreciate that if your travels require you to go ABQ-PDX during this time period this is annoying, if this is the difference between being a profitable airline and a losing airline, I would say that losing this non-stop for less than a month a year is worth it. Southwest still has all 737 service with one connection or one-stop-no-plane-change if the time works for you. Compare to the other guys that are going to fly an RJ or Q400 part of the way and make you connect too.

Yep definitely noticed that the MDW-SAN & MDW-LAX early AM non-stops have totally disappeared. I now have to look at approx 7hrs to get from MDW to SAN on the 1st flight out because it stops in DEN. Not really my idea of a good time. Then I see that not only does the first non-stop get me in a point that I'm losing half of my day in SAN (which didn't happen before the cuts when I could get in by 9-ish) but the non-stop options are substantially more costly than they have been in the past.
:( Almost makes a few UAL flights looking appealing for the time we planning on going out there.



If that is your needed flight, then yes, that cut does hurt. It would seem that early flight would be popular, but perhaps experience has shown Southwest that it isn't that full all of the time. If that was my particular flight need, I'd have to weigh going out a night early (and the associated room cost) against going on United or American and the associated hassles and costs of that (bag fees, change fees, fare difference, possible loss of A-list status, etc.)

Compared to the axe swinging that's going on with legacy schedules, WN appears to be reacting with a lot of caution & deliberation.

That's only because Southwest didn't have a schedule to modify. If they had released flights more than 6 or 7 months in advance, they'd have to make changes on the fly as well.

Frankly, the schedule changes that "legacies" make doesn't really bother anyone. It's a fact of life and most legacy travelers don't mind because at least we know we have a reservation made in the system. Plus, about 90% of the changes are 30 minutes one way or the other... and several are simply flight number changes with nothing affecting the flight times.

That's only because Southwest didn't have a schedule to modify. If they had released flights more than 6 or 7 months in advance, they'd have to make changes on the fly as well.

Considering that Delta routinely makes schedule changes on flights only 4-6 weeks out, your premise is meaningless.

I've had to have bad schedule changes corrected on DL/NW quite a few times.

Frankly, the schedule changes that "legacies" make doesn't really bother anyone. It's a fact of life and most legacy travelers don't mind because at least we know we have a reservation made in the system. BS. I mind the changes and they do bother me. Maybe I'm the only person who is bothered by it, but I kind of doubt it.

BS. I mind the changes and they do bother me. Maybe I'm the only person who is bothered by it, but I kind of doubt it.

+1 ^

BS. I mind the changes and they do bother me. Maybe I'm the only person who is bothered by it, but I kind of doubt it.

You don't even have DL listed in your "programs" list... plus, you're in Kansas City... not exactly a city in which Delta really invests any effort...