Originally Posted by
mile ho
The growth rate of 24 new destinations in the past 3 years is not on fresh WN metal; they did not initiate even half of these 'new' destinations on their own (I can only think of DCA, which they purchased from AA?). This number is no doubt skewed heavily because of the acquisition of Air Tran which began 3 years ago, as the majority of new dots on the map have come through the purchase; through the taking over of the AT stations.
In fact when the purchase was announced Southwest and Southwest each served 69 cities at acquisition. Airtran and Southwest only served 30 of the same cities for a total of 108 cities and overlapped on only 19 routes.
Only a few changes were for consolidation or other reasons, DFW for example.