Southwest Airlines to begin Minneapolis-St. Paul service in 2009
DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines will launch service to a new city for the first time since August 2007 next spring when it will begin flying between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago's Midway Airport.
The decision means the USA's leading discount airline — which already carries more domestic passengers than any other carrier — will be moving onto one of Northwest Airlines' bread-and-butter routes just as the Eagan, Minn.-based carrier expects to be merging with Atlanta-based Delta. That merger is expected to receive federal antitrust approval and to be consumated before year's end.
Southwest Chairman Gary Kelly said the decision to move into the Minneapolis-St. Paul market in March has nothing to do with the Northwest-Delta merger. But he did note that the route between the Twin Cities and Chicago served mostly via Chicago's larger O'Hare Airport, is precisely the the kind of route Southwest likes to move into.
"There's very high fares on that route. And there's as many people flying between those two cities as we serve between Dallas and Houston, maybe more," Kelly said.
Dallas-based Southwest got its start 36 years ago flying between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, and its heavily-traveled Dallas-Houston route has long been a source of significant profits despite the relatively low fares that prevail on that route. Kelly suggested Southwest's low fare formula could stimulate even more demand for air travel between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, but he said Southwest won't be planning for rapid growth or additional destinations from Minneapolis-St. Paul until executives see how demand develops on the one route to Chicago.
Fares on Southwest's Dallas-Houston route currently range between $74 and $137 one way. Fares between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago currently range between $270 and $436.50 one way for coach, and are $396.28 for first class. Southwest does not offer first class service
Southwest's launch in Minneapolis-St. Paul is unusual in that it rarely operates just one route from any city it serves. Currently only one city, Corpus Christi, Texas, has service to just one city (Houston). Typically Southwest launches service in a new city with flights to 2 to 4 destinations, and then adds several more routes within a year or two.
