Originally Posted by
sfozrhfco
Many inaugural flights are full and if you offer the fares low enough or even give seats to press, travel agents, etc it is not difficult to fill one plane. If airlines based their flight planning on the ability to sell out one flight, they'd all be bankrupt.
The dignitaries could not fly the return as it was a 55 min layover and you have to go through Bahamian and US Customs in NAS plus Southwest cuts off international check in and connections at 60 mins. That's why the "celebration" will be tomorrow.
And the passengers I saw at baggage claim looked like they were coming off any other flight. The reason this is more significant for Southwest and this flight in particular is because of the well documented fact that they have trouble selling in other currencies and mostly rely on US based traffic for their international flights.