Southwest competitive changes for winter
 

Southwest rolled out their winter schedule today, through March 11th or so. (FYI, when I detail specific flight times and thru flights, I checked early March.)


Milwaukee

--MKE-PHX increases from 1x to 2x
This has by far been their fullest route overall at 1x, although it's interesting that both directions the departures are close together...12:35pm and 2:20pm westbound, and 12:50pm and 2:15pm eastbound.

--MKE-MCI decreases from 3x to 2x.
Westbound 7:00am and 7:05pm, eastbound 9:05am and 7:45pm. Well-timed for business, although it's interesting that with Frontier's schedule decreasing to 4x this winter, Southwest still chose to trim back their offering to 2x.

--Other nonstop markets
All other nonstop markets remain at current levels, including MKE-BWI at 3x. BWI and MCI were the weakest performers last winter, but only MCI is being trimmed.

--Thru flights
No thru flights to RSW this year, although two 1-stops to FLL (1 one-stop return)
DAL, SAN and LAX each have two 1-stop flights both directions

Kansas City

--MCI-SEA discontinued
They did this last winter as well, although last year they immediately stated MCI-SEA would return in spring. I have not specifically seen that spelled out this year, although it would not be a surprise to see it come back.

--Thru flights
MCI-BWI is being reduced from 3x to 2x/day, and the only morning MCI-BWI flight which does not require a change of planes is a 9:05am MCI-MKE-BWI trip.

Denver

Southwest is adding one additional flight each to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Reno. Compared to some previous new rollouts, that's a relatively small change in DEN. Obviously January-March is not the busiest period to pile on new flights, although Denver does benefit from ski season.

MKE-RSW one-stop still available, operating on Saturday, only. Last season, the direct flight had an intermediate stop at MCO.

The WN FLL flights offer more of a selection in departure times, than the F9 and FL nonstops, which are all scheduled very closely together, offering no PM departures.

Additional service to FLL, is always a welcome addition. Although, Frontier and AirTran easily beat the Southwest fares.

Southwest stated on their blog that MCI-SEA was likely to return next summer.

This is the one MCI route where Southwest has blinked in the face on Midwest/Frontier competition.

It isn't WN but FL is reducing MKE-BOS from 3 daily to 2 daily for the winter. The mid day flight is going away in November.

The FL reductions to DEN and now BOS, and the F9 reductions to LAX and ATL, IMO show that things are starting to cool down in MKE and both airlines, for the most part, realize where they are going to be successful versus not.