Southwest preparing for takeoff from IAH

Airline back in service at Bush airport as more travelers get vaccines

Southwest Airlines returns to George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday after a 16-year hiatus, offering 15 flights a day just as vaccinations begin to bring the pandemic under control and unleash pent-up travel demand.

Southwest, which has a loyal following, has flown exclusively out of Hobby Airport since 2005. Hobby will remain Southwest’s Houston hub, but the expansion aims to tap the market north of Interstate 10, where people might book flights at Bush out of convenience, said Dave Harvey, a vice president at the airline.

Southwest will fly to Nashville, Dallas, Denver, Chicago and New Orleans out of Bush.

“People north of I-10 will drive down to Hobby because they love our service,” Harvey said. “But there are a lot of customers that we haven’t been able to win over because they’re not going to make that drive and kind of cut around downtown.”

Southwest’s expansion to Bush Intercontinental comes as airlines prepare for a surge of vaccinated travelers aching for adventure after more than a year of being trapped at home. The pandemic devastated air travel, forcing airlines to lay off or furlough tens of thousands of workers and turn to the federal government for tens of billions of dollars to stay afloat.

Now, airlines, including Southwest, report that bookings are climbing. American Airlines recently said in a regulatory filing that its bookings for domestic and

short-haul international flights reached 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Since March 11, 1 million or more passengers per day have passed through security checkpoints in the nation’s airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

On March 28, more than 1.5 million passengers cleared airport security, up from about 180,000 a year earlier, when broad, pandemic-related shutdowns were in place, TSA said.

Southwest, meanwhile, expects to increase its daily flights out of Hobby from 144 to 162 by summer, approaching the pre-pandemic level of 171, a spokesman said. The company said Thursday it would bring back to work some 2,700 flight attendants from furloughs.

Raring to go

Analysts expect leisure travel to pick up quickly as greater shares of the population are vaccinated. Younger travelers are likely to lead the way as older Americans, who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, remain reluctant to travel — even those who are vaccinated, said Rob Britton, professor of marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

“When people feel comfortable about traveling again, they are going to go on vacation and they are going to visit their mom and dad, whom they haven’t seen in a year,” Britton said. “If you’ve been employed during the pandemic, you’ve probably saved money and have the means to travel.”

Jesse Roberts, 23, of Houston is among those itching to get away. He already has trips planned for summer and fall.

“I’ve never really been somebody that’s traveled that often,” said Roberts, who works remotely in Houston for the Los Angeles video game company Esport. “But this summer I’m planning on going to Los Angeles, New York and Boston to see my friends.”

Southwest, headquartered in Fort Worth, launched its first flight out of the intercontinental airport in June 1971, operating there until 1972. It resumed operations there in 1980, flying from both Houston airports.

Southwest left Bush Intercontinental again in 2005 to align with its strategy of providing service to secondary airports in major cities, said Geoff Scripture, collections manager at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport. More recently, however, Southwest has begun to offer service from major airports.

Earlier this year, for example, Southwest added service to Chicago O’Hare after serving that market for decades out of Chicago Midway. Southwest announced in October it would return to Bush Intercontinental after cutbacks by other airlines made three gates available.

“Southwest has been very successful in starting service at airports where it sees opportunities,” said Henry Harteveldt, principal at Atmosphere Research Group, a market research and advisory firm in San Francisco.

Not there yet

Analysts say it will likely take years for the airline industry to completely recover from the pandemic, in part because business travel is likely to remain depressed as companies embrace lower-cost video conferencing.

Harvey, the Southwest executive, agreed. Still, he added, the move to Bush Intercontinental provides an opportunity to win customers as the industry rebounds.

“Our two most precious assets are our people and our planes, and we’ve got to put them to good use,” Harvey said. “We’re not just going to hold our nose and hope the pandemic kind of passes by.”