Southwest announces intent to start service at Panama City, Florida
Oct 21, 2009, 12:14 pm
#2
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May 2010 for service start, bummer they'll miss the Spring Break season.
edited to add: Start with 2 flights daily to 4 WN destinations (8 total). BNA and BWI already mentioned, I would guess HOU and MDW on top of that.
St. Joe Company is taking on the financial risk for the first three years of WN's operations.
More details of the agreement with St. Joe in this 8-K filing. WN is not allowed to begin new service to any airport within 80 miles during the three year agreement and service to an airport 80-120 miles away would require renegotiation of the agreement. St. Joe can opt out if their payment to WN exceeds $14 million in year one or $12 million in year two. If St. Joe makes payments to WN and the flights later become profitable, they will be reimbursed for the earlier payments by WN.
edited to add: Start with 2 flights daily to 4 WN destinations (8 total). BNA and BWI already mentioned, I would guess HOU and MDW on top of that.
St. Joe Company is taking on the financial risk for the first three years of WN's operations.
More details of the agreement with St. Joe in this 8-K filing. WN is not allowed to begin new service to any airport within 80 miles during the three year agreement and service to an airport 80-120 miles away would require renegotiation of the agreement. St. Joe can opt out if their payment to WN exceeds $14 million in year one or $12 million in year two. If St. Joe makes payments to WN and the flights later become profitable, they will be reimbursed for the earlier payments by WN.
Last edited by Beckles; Oct 21, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Oct 21, 2009, 12:21 pm
#3
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Never been to that part of the state. Nice to have another option. Is it possible that TPA or FLL might be one of the cities for intra-state travel/repositioning?
Oct 21, 2009, 12:31 pm
#5
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Included in the announcement today was intent to grow operations at STL by adding new non-stop service in six markets and additional flights in two others. Details just posted by Bill Owen on blogsouthwest
Oct 21, 2009, 1:12 pm
#7
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That's not enough the O/D daily passengers traffic. When WN will have enough more profitability routes out of PFN. I think in the future if WN will have to bring more capacity growth. Let's see how it going in PFN and before PNS will be next.
Oct 21, 2009, 1:47 pm
#9
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As a UCF student who calls Panama City home when not in Orlando, I find this to be great news. Now I am not a fan of Southwest by any measure, but I am happy to see some movement into the market. Right now PFN just has DL/NW CRJs to Memphis and Atlanta, and lets face it fares are not exactly the lowest in the panhandle due to the lack of competition. In other words...hooray for competition! ^
The local paper claims that two of the cities will be BWI and BNA (http://www.newsherald.com/articles/b...st-county.html), but I could have sworn I read elsewhere that the 8 flights would be two 4 different cities. Either way this is interesting and helps validate the new airport and hopefully can silence some of the people who claimed that SW would never fly to the new facility that opens in May '10...
The local paper claims that two of the cities will be BWI and BNA (http://www.newsherald.com/articles/b...st-county.html), but I could have sworn I read elsewhere that the 8 flights would be two 4 different cities. Either way this is interesting and helps validate the new airport and hopefully can silence some of the people who claimed that SW would never fly to the new facility that opens in May '10...
Oct 21, 2009, 1:56 pm
#11
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Not to mention the fact that if you factor back in the 60% of the GSP market that doesn't use GSP currently due to high airfares (which the entry of WN, FL, etc would correct to the majority of destinations), you'd have around 3 million pax a year, just in this market alone. I think GSP is a quite viable (and much more passenger-friendly) alternative to ATL or CLT for WN.
Oct 21, 2009, 2:19 pm
#12
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Oct 21, 2009, 2:50 pm
#13
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Not to mention the fact that if you factor back in the 60% of the GSP market that doesn't use GSP currently due to high airfares (which the entry of WN, FL, etc would correct to the majority of destinations), you'd have around 3 million pax a year, just in this market alone. I think GSP is a quite viable (and much more passenger-friendly) alternative to ATL or CLT for WN.
Oct 21, 2009, 3:30 pm
#14
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I am waiting for the special SWA perks ya get if you now live or buy into a St. Joe community. A-List for the family? One companion pass per household? Complimentary Early Bird, etc.
((I still miss the early morning coffee, OJ, and doughnuts that SWA had at the Austin airport.))
((I still miss the early morning coffee, OJ, and doughnuts that SWA had at the Austin airport.))
Oct 21, 2009, 4:00 pm
#15
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Included in the announcement today was intent to grow operations at STL by adding new non-stop service in six markets and additional flights in two others. Details just posted by Bill Owen on blogsouthwest