Southwest to start service to New York City's LaGuardia

By
Dan Reed, USA TODAY
April 7, 2009, 9:21 PM ET
3 min read

— -- Southwest Airlines luv said Tuesday that it would begin offering service June 28 at New York's LaGuardia Airport, its first foray into the business traveler airport known for high fares.

Southwest, the granddaddy of low-cost, low-fare carriers, will provide five flights a day to Chicago's Midway airport starting with fares as low as $89 one-way. It will offer three flights a day to Baltimore/Washington International airport for as little as $49.

The airline is touting Midway and BWI as prime connecting points for New Yorkers seeking discount service. Midway is Southwest's second-biggest point of operation, with 214 daily flights. BWI is its fourth-biggest, with 162 daily flights.

For much of its 38 years, Southwest has skirted heavily congested and competitive airports such as LaGuardia in favor of smaller ones such as MacArthur Airport on Long Island. Southwest has been flying out of MacArthur, an hour's commute from Manhattan, since 1999.

But in the last five years the airline increasingly has entered or stepped up service in major business travel markets, such as Philadelphia and Denver, and reduced service in some of the smaller markets it traditionally has favored.

Last month, for instance, Southwest launched service at Minneapolis-St. Paul, another major business travel market. It plans to begin service in the fall at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Southwest said in November that it would enter New York, the USA's largest local air travel market, as part of its strategy to go after revenue available in major business travel markets.

Business travelers typically pay more for business-class or first-class fares or because they can't plan far enough ahead to get less-expensive tickets.

New York-based JetBlue, the biggest discount carrier in the New York market and a Southwest competitor, operates out of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Southwest hasn't disclosed its long-term plans at LaGuardia. But it may be in less of a hurry to build service rapidly there, unlike in the past when it moved quickly to expand in a new market.

For the first time in its history, Southwest's fleet will shrink this year, to 535 Boeing 737s at year's end from 537 at the end of 2008. Its capacity, measured in available seat miles, will be down nearly 5%.

But a tentative contract agreement with its pilots' union late last month commits the airline to growing again, starting next year. If ratified, the contract will require Southwest to increase its fleet to at least 541 planes at the end of next year and to 568 at the end of 2012. The airline's capacity also will be required to grow by at least 5% in both 2011 and 2012.