So, Southwest/Airtran opened their schedule today until 8/10/12. The really interesting part, IMO, is the proliferation of AirTran metal on routes from Southwest focus cities (FLL, SAT, SNA, DEN). Let's focus on DEN for a minute.

DEN-CAK departs at 2:25p (545) except on Saturdays, when it's 1:20p (883). The aircraft is a 717. AirTran's takeoff time is pretty much right in between the two Frontier flights, which are on 319s and are currently $20 more expensive than the AirTran flight.

CAK-DEN departs at 12:29p (456) except on Saturdays, when it's 11:29a (1443). Again, AirTran's flight is scheduled to bisect Frontier's schedule more or less, and again the flight is priced $20 lower than on Frontier.

What's interesting is that United doesn't serve this route at all. Even on a connecting flight, they price themselves out of the market...$270 on a Tuesday is is the cheapest UA flight I could find (DEN-ORD-CAK with the last hop on an ERJ). Wonder how many people F9 and now FL are poaching from DEN-CLE, since CAK is less than an hour from CLE, driving time. I'm wondering how much WN's new flight will grow the market though, versus just pushing F9 out.

Speaking of CLE, prices on DEN-CLE are ridiculous, probably because the route is UA-only. Another interesting point: there's ~385 seats on the route (2x738, 1xCR7). When FL starts service to CAK, there will be ~390 seats on that route, spread over three flights with similar flight times to UA to CLE. Interesting, no?

To break things up, I'll put each route in a different post. Yay over-analysis!