[Travelandtourism] Southwest announces which AirTran cities 'make the cut'

[Reese]

Southwest Airlines today gave a final count on exactly how many AirTran 
destinations will make the cut as it pushes forward with merging the 
carriers.

Southwest says that on Aug. 12, it will drop six more cities from AirTran's 
route map. They are: Allentown, Pa.; Lexington, Ky.; Harrisburg, Pa.; 
Huntsville, Ala.; Sarasota, Fla.; and White Plains, N.Y.

AirTran had a relatively small presence at all six airports, but the news is 
still likely to be devastating for local officials at those airports. The 
pullout means several of those airports will be left without any meaningful 
service on a low-cost carrier.

One of those those airports is Harrisburg International, which lamented the 
loss via an e-mail it sent its customers about an hour after Southwest's 
announcement.

"Obviously we are extremely disappointed that Southwest Airlines has decided 
to discontinue AirTran service at Harrisburg effective August 12th," 
Harrisburg International says in the e-mail. "Since the service begin in 
November 2008, more than 250,000 people have flown between Harrisburg and 
Orlando at affordable fares. This region has demonstrated that low fare 
service from Harrisburg will be supported. Fortunately, we have some time 
before the service ends to reach out to other airlines who might have an 
interest in serving this route."

>From the moment that Southwest's acquisition of AirTran was announced, 
officials from AirTran's smaller cities expressed both concern and hope 
about whether their airports would be blended into the Southwest network.

Speculation on which AirTran cities would make the cut for Southwest had 
been rampant in aviation circles since merger was announced, though it now 
appears that the topic can be put to rest.

With today's news, Southwest will end up paring a grand total of 15 cities 
as it combines its route map with AirTran's.

The other nine AirTran cities - all previously announced - that will not see 
Southwest-branded flights as part of the merger are: Asheville, N.C.; 
Atlantic City, N.J.; Bloomington/Normal, Ill.; Charleston, W. Va.; 
Dallas/Fort Worth; Knoxville, Tenn.; Miami; Moline/Quad Cities, Ill.; and 
Newport News, Va.

Of course, there was good news out of today's announcement for some other 
airports.

Southwest announced "22 AirTran airports that will continue to operate and 
will eventually join the Southwest route map ... ."

Domestically, they are: Akron-Canton, Ohio; Branson, Mo.; Charlotte; Dayton, 
Ohio; Des Moines; Flint, Mich.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Key West, Fla.; 
Memphis; Pensacola, Fla.; Portland, Maine; Richmond, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; 
San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington Reagan National and Wichita, Kan.

And internationally, Southwest said it will keep the following AirTran 
destinations: Aruba; Bermuda; Cancun, Mexico; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, 
Bahamas; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic;

Southwest says that AirTran service and employees at those 22 airports will 
"convert to Southwest gradually over the course of AirTran's integration 
into Southwest."

Additionally, Southwest notes:

Of the 69 cities AirTran served when Southwest acquired it on May 2, 2011, 
53 cities are planned to convert to full Southwest Airlines service.

However, Washington Dulles was among the AirTran cities where Southwest 
decided to discontinue AirTran service. But since Southwest also flies to 
Dulles, its termination of AirTran's operation will not keep Dulles from the 
carriers' post-merger route map.

As for when fliers might begin to see an integrated operation, Southwest say 
that Seattle will become "the first jointly served airport to fully convert 
to Southwest." That will occur Aug. 12.


Peachtree Travel
Independent Travel Consultant

(phone) 770-280-5029

(website: http://www.peachtreetravel.net.

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel CST-1018299-10
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