Southwest tunes up schedule in Music City
Airlines constantly tweak their schedules, trying to find profitable new routes or pulling the plug on ones that have underperformed. Airports and communities court these new services.
There are dozens of changes to airline routes each month. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting:
❚ Southwest grows Nashville foot
print, shrinks in Atlanta: Southwest Airlines announced 10 nonstop routes and dropped two as it extended its booking schedule through early August.
The big winner was Nashville, Tennessee, where Southwest will add five nonstop routes. New options will include the California cities of Burbank and San Jose. Also on the docket is a new route to Omaha, Nebraska, though it will operate only on Sundays. Southwest also will add nonstop flights from Nashville to Seattle and Norfolk, Virginia, restoring seasonal routes it offered previously. The flights will begin June 9.
Beyond the new destinations, Southwest also said it would increase the number of daily flights from Nashville on existing routes to Boston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego and St. Louis.
Other new Southwest routes coming in June include San Francisco-Ontario, California; San Diego, Omaha and Austin, Texas-Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina.
Southwest also said it was abandoning a plan to fly from Paine Field, a secondary Seattle-area airport in Everett, Washington. Southwest announced in January that it would add five daily flights there, but it now plans to cede those flight slots to rival Alaska Airlines. The carriers did not disclose the terms of that deal.
Elsewhere, Southwest will drop two routes from Atlanta, ending nonstop service to both Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul in early June. All three of
those cities are hubs for rival Delta. ❚ Alaska Airlines says Paine Field
flights start Feb. 11: Alaska Airlines, meanwhile, said its flights from Everett’s Paine Field would begin Feb. 11. Alaska Airlines already had announced its eight destinations planned for Everett but had not said when they’d begin.
Even with the new slots from Southwest, however, Alaska Airlines said it would not add new flights. Instead, Alaska said it would add additional flights on several routes there. The carrier’s Everett service will be to Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Orange County, California; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose, California.
❚ Spirit adds Austin to route map:
Fast-growing Spirit Airlines will make Austin, Texas, its newest destination.
The ultralow-cost carrier will debut there Feb. 14, launching with an aggressive schedule that features nonstop flights to eight destinations. A ninth route will join Spirit’s Austin lineup in May.
Spirit’s expansion to Austin furthers a period of explosive growth for the airport. A number of airlines have revealed new or increased flights there during the past two years, including international carriers Lufthansa and Norwegian Air.
Spirit’s Austin schedule will begin Feb. 14 and will feature flights to eight destinations: Baltimore/Washington (BWI); Chicago O’Hare; Denver; Detroit; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Las Vegas; New Orleans; and Orlando, Florida. A ninth route connecting Austin to Los Angeles begins May 2.
❚ Allegiant adds 10 new routes with focus on Florida: Allegiant Air revealed plans for 10 new nonstop routes and a major expansion in Sarasota, Florida.
Nine of the 10 new routes are to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, where Allegiant’s roster of nonstop destinations will jump from three to 12.
Allegiant’s new Sarasota routes will give the Florida city twice-weekly, yearround service to Asheville, North Carolina; Baltimore/Washington; Cleveland; Columbus/Rickenbacker, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Nashville; Richmond, Vir-
ginia; and Syracuse, New York. Those routes will be phased in between Feb. 22 and April 5.
Elsewhere, Allegiant will add seasonal nonstop service between New Orleans and Louisville, Kentucky. The carrier will begin offering two flights a week on Feb. 28.
❚ Air France returning to DFW for
first time since 2001: Air France will make Dallas/Fort Worth its newest U.S. destination, returning to the airport after an absence of nearly 18 years.
Flights to the carrier’s Paris Charles de Gaulle hub begin March 31, with Air France offering up to five flights a week on 224-seat Airbus A330 widebody jets. The service will run through Oct. 25, wrapping up before the typically lower-demand winter schedule.
The move brings Air France back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the first time since November 2001, when its flights ended shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Air France will be the 16th international airline to fly from DFW.
❚ Japan Airlines to fly nonstop from Seattle to Tokyo: Japan Airlines (JAL) will begin flying to Seattle in March, a move that will bring the carrier back to the city for the first time since 1992.
JAL’s return to Seattle will come March 31, when the airline launches daily service to Tokyo Narita. JAL will fly the route with its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.
JAL will become the third airline to fly nonstop between Seattle and Tokyo Narita, joining Delta and Japanese rival All Nippon Airways (ANA).
❚ Delta partner WestJet adds Atlanta flights: Canadian carrier WestJet has announced Atlanta as its newest U.S. destination.
The airline will begin flying to the world’s busiest airport on March 3, offering six weekly flights to its hub in Calgary on Boeing 737 aircraft.
The schedule will increase to daily service April 7.
WestJet will be the only airline flying nonstop between Atlanta and Calgary.