Southwest is slowly building momentum in Atlanta. This was evident with yesterday’s announcement of nonstop flights to two of its important airports missed in the initial bank of Nonstops from Atlanta: Las Vegas and Phoenix. AirTran already flies to these cities.
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When Southwest announced its initial schedule for Atlanta, the omission of Las Vegas and Phoenix was a bit of a surprise. But, everyone expected that these cities will be included in the next round of expansion. Las Vegas is still the biggest airport in Southwest’s system in terms of number of destinations (shared by Chicago Midway, which is the biggest in terms of number of departures). Phoenix is number three in term of destinations and four in terms of departures (BWI being number three). So, it is not really a surprise from the route selection perspective. The new services start on March 10, 2012.
DL will have to muscle up to fight the onslaught on LUV + AirTran combo. As a longtime flyer from ATL, I am glad to see finally someone is ready to take on DL’s monopoly.
SW is going to eat a piece of Delta’s meal….