knope2001

It's from the T100's segment data, which are monthly tables of flight data.


http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Tables....Air%20Carriers

ColumbusTraveler

I'm pretty excited about Southwest starting non-stop flights from CMH to DCA in April. Looks like flights are going to be in the ballpark of $88 each way per person, $176 RT versus $196 RT with Delta, United or AA.

wetrat0

These are December, which is 3 months ago. It "feels" like things are picking up. I was on a completely full IND-DCA last week.

I still think almost nobody even knows they fly to DCA.

rsteinmetz70112

I think you're right about that.

bgriz18

Well that is good news then! I might take this route later this summer, possibly labor day weekend.

rtalk25

Probably if it wants to increase Washington region "DMV" point of sale from DCA, it'd advertise on tv and on billboards. Has it been doing that?

One thing that I think southwest.com needs is an "Include Nearby Airports" like kayak, or atleast a group code that identifies more than one airport. So a search like WAS-SFO would show all the flights from IAD, DCA, BWI <-> SFO, OAK, SJC in one result, rather than one having to run 9 different searches.

I assume this applies more for Bay Area where airport arrival maybe more interchangeable, but I wonder how many people look up fares for just one airport at destination like SFO and not even bother with OAK, not realizing there is a nonstop to OAK or better fare (e.g. BWI-OAK when there is no nonstop to SFO). The textboxes (at time of input) do show the other airports, but I believe that isn't enough.

ronbo83

I am in the DCA/IAD market and they did advertise for DCA when they first started service but have not seen anything since on TV. No billboards where I am going around DC. I used to live in HOU and remember more billboards there when they opened new markets. Just flew to ATL for work and had to tell people I was on WN when I said I was flying out of DCA as everyone thought I was on DL or US.

bradleyl12

wondering if they will switch CAK with PVD or a Florida destination. Also think taking the B6 approach of doing DCA-Florida would be better. DCA-Texas from what I here is doing very well too. Still think it was stupid to get rid of RSW if the loads were that good. Maybe they will bring back RSW as a seasonal destination.

hughc99

In the last few days I've finally started noticing some advertising for WN at DCA.

There's been some targeted Facebook ads for the DCA-CMH route.

I also heard an audio ad on Pandora. "Southwest is the fastest growing airline at DCA".

knope2001

Here are the onboard passengers for the month of January, typically the weakest month for a market like DCA. I've included the typical flights per day.

69.0% ….. RSW …. 1x
66.5% ….. TPA ….. 2x
60.8% ….. AUS ….. 1x
51.9% ….. MSY ….. 2x
50.9% ….. DAL ….. 6x
50.4% ….. ATL …... 6x
48.6% ….. MKE ….. 3x
48.3% ….. MCI ….. 1x
47.5% ….. HOU ….. 4x
44.2% ….. STL …... 3x
44.0% ….. MDW …. 9x
40.9% ….. BNA ….. 3x
25.8% ….. CAK ….. 1x
21.5% ….. IND ….. 2x

rtalk25

I wonder if WN might be reluctant to offer DCA-Florida besides a few flights like the AIR21 slot flight it acquired, not because of B6, but if WN wants to keep BWI as it's go to airport for Florida flights in the Washington region, especially as it keeps 10x daily on certain routes. Maybe it wouldn't consider DCA-Florida complementary if it wants to encourage some traffic esp. further away from Baltimore, to use BWI.

But Florida service (i.e. MCO, and TPA and FLL as well) is popular for pax in January, if it wants better load factors.

Sunburn644

yes! I am completely with you. I live in Baltimore and had no idea that WN flew DCA, since BWI is their busiest east coast city (180 daily departures).

I think they need it for Los Angeles as well

tassojunior

Southwest is getting hammered on fares at BWI by Spirit now. They've had to cut fares to Las Vegas and Ft Lauderdale in half with no advance and they're still twice what Spirit "advertises". And FLL is Spirit's main hub and international hub (they have a big international system).

I don't see Southwest looking to compete in airports with large Spirit or Frontier presence. Rather I see them moving emphasis to airports like DCA with little or no competition from them.

I don't understand why Southwest didn't extend it's "One-Flight for a Companion Pass" promo from ATL to DCA.

rtalk25

Interesting you mention Spirit and Frontier.

One day soon I'll look at the LFs of Southwest's PHL-MCO to last year sometime after Frontier started service.

I'm thinking Frontier is siphoning some leisure passengers with it's 2x daily PHL-MCO and 1-2x daily TTN/ILG-MCO.

Frontier deeply discounts fares in order to drive up load factors, but perhaps the market is somewhat finite.

US has a tighter grip with business passengers, better frequency (more flights) and has the hub advantage on the PHL side. I basically had to go out of my way to use Southwest since I was flying on business, but I don't think many traveling on business customers do this especially when heading down to Florida.

Although DCA's dynamics are different than PHL, in both cases, it's primary airport of a region with a legacy carrier being more dominant and other carriers that use 3rd party booking sites, and Southwest doesn't have a hub there itself. This might prove challenging at times for Florida bound service which tends to be heavier on leisure than business travel.

hughc99

Looks like DCA-CAK is gone as of November 1 and DCA-CMH goes up to two flights daily in each direction.

Any other changes anyone has noticed?