<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ClueByFour:
Of course, you could argue that the real purpose of this is to drive a spike into the heart of US, and then pick up a bunch of traffic when/if US folds or retreats from PHL.</font>
Indeed. PHL has for some time presened a good opporutnity for someone to gain a foothold in a key metro area. PHL is especially attractive since it has such a wide draw (S.E. PA, So. NJ, and DE) and the dominant carrier there (US) is so weak. WN will undoubtedly cannibalize itself at BWI a little bit, but it will gain access to many more pax who have been paying really high fares out of PHL, and it will undoubtedly hurt CO by drawing lots of pax from the Garden State. CO will now face pressure from WN at all 3 of its hubs.