beyondhere

Poster said leverage, and Southwest had a presence in EWR. It is like people that choose to live near MDW or DAL for one reason, but leverage that one of the benefits is a nearby airport served by Southwest.

daloosh

Okay, there were two reasons:

First, his region kinda centers on Newark, and between being a loyal SW flyer from the midwest and easy highway access to the NY/PHL metro areas, NJ made more sense and was cheaper than living across the river in NYC.

Second, during his many trips to the Newark area, he met a girl...

I will have to ask what percentage each reason had in the decision! Now, he's screwed even getting back home to the midwest come the first week of Nov.

beyondhere

I think Southwest's strategy now is more California / West focused, save for DC area. Not necessarily major airports growth focused, as it launched a new airport, LGB. I don't think there will be much LUV to the East Coast in general in new routes.

Maybe it would add RIC-BNA and few other routes from the east to BNA, but that'd be more about building up BNA.

jrpallante

DEN for one. I was just shopping for flights from EWR-DEN for Thanksgiving. For every date I entered, the Southwest site just kept saying "no flights available that match your criteria." I could of saved some time if it said "we don't fly there!"

Jerseyguy

Orlando was Saturday only at the end. I guess they were really getting clobbered. I purchased $49 each way tickets a year ago.

Jerseyguy

To me its wait....someone relocated to Newark

ucdtim17

Some analysis https://crankyflier.com/2019/08/01/w...eaving-newark/

kennethdmarks

Likely a backend process for reporting the refund amount as a refund for the original itinerary.

ursine1

That would still be technically in violation of the merchant agreement. As I said, it's often done, so operationally there aren't any automatic barriers. But the refund is not supposed to be larger than the initial charge. Presumably, a company that did this with enough frequency would lose card acceptance privileges.

beyondhere

With Southwest closing EWR with its high cost airport, delays and it too competitive with United, and then WN cutting some highly competitive routes like ATL-BOS as well, it made me wonder if ATL-PHL (rather competitive and smaller than BOS from O&D perspective) is justifiable to be eliminated as well.

At the same time, I think Southwest wants to hold on to its gates in ATL, so it needs to fly a lot of routes. The Atlanta region is growing and ATL fits well between Texas and Florida strategically.

With the closing of EWR, is there actually a possibility that Southwest make a play for TTN? Perhaps ATL-TTN 2x daily, with a 3x daily to MDW added in to help fill some of the loss from MDW-EWR.

Or is the airport terminal and amenities at TTN too primitive for WN's standards? Location is workable otherwise. The ACY terminal is not primitive but TTN has the better location. (ideally if ACY terminal and runways were located in TTN's location that would be the best of both of the two airports). I've also kind of wondered if Southwest could make a play for ABE although it's a bit out and I doubt Delta will concede ABE-ATL.

More likely Southwest's play one day to help infill back in the Northeast will be buying JetBlue and convincing the DOJ that overlap is minimal. Cutting EWR means WN is smaller in NYC, and WN also has announced a number of cuts at BOS making it minor there, which will help the narrative that overlap is minimal. Unfortunately, the last acquisition has resulted in lost routes and decreased competition out of ATL.

guflyer

I am curious what you think that the reason is that the strategy seems to be more California and West Coast focused. Is it that there is too much competition on the East Coast? Is it because of where the airline started out? I do not disagree with your point, but am really curious about this.

exwannabe

After the buyout of Air Tran led to less competition on the East Coast, this would be a hard issue to push past DOJ.

As an aside, Air Tran use to have a nice presence at HPN (Westchester, 30 minutes north of the NYC) which serves the region. WN had to pull out as it is too small for 737s. DL is flying some found 717s into it now.

A220 anybody?

ryw

Makes sense to me. With the cutbacks in EWR (and BOS), it seems like WN seems to be mostly focusing on its California, and other western & midwest passengers. There's routing options to get those people to NYC and Boston as outstations, but not as robust of an east coast route network to really cater to NYC or Boston-originating passengers. (This focus on western and midwest US passengers perhaps makes sense given that the new Hawaii flights aren't well timed for east coasters.)

The northeast seems difficult to compete in as well, with the UA hub at EWR, DL hubs at LGA/JFK/BOS, AA at JFK/PHL, and B6 at JFK/BOS.

Jerseyguy

TTN's terminal is pretty primitive, 2 gates, a small bar and grab to go sandwich area after security, minimal bathrooms after security, probably only seating for 200. Another 100 seats upstairs pre-security
Speaking of the runway full 738 is pushing, a 737-700 would be better. Also TTN probably can do 2-3 more daily flights max. They have a 70 seat restaurant and bar (according to the website), SkyLounge at Ewing serving a small variety of diner type food, prices are normal restaurant prices not inflated. WN would likely never come prior to the opening of the new terminal.



About 95% of the post security area (taken January 25,2017)

About 60-65% of the entire post security area (taken January 25, 2017)

MrMan

AS has a mini hub at DAL, old Virgin gates