[Travelandtourism] Southwest announces which AirTran cities 'makethe cut'

[Peter Donahue]

Good morning everyone,

    This is exactly why I suggested to Cheryl our conversation with Social 
Flights. Airline route slashing is going on nation-wide with all airlines. 
Social Flights is soon to announce community air service to a number of 
cities once served by the airlines or who have never had air service of any 
kind. It's good that we connected with them to insure that blind individuals 
will be able to use public air charter services in addition to scheduled 
airline routes. I'll be curious to see if they have anything to say about 
Southwest's Airtran route slashing on their blog. All the best.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reese" <atlanticstar1 at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Travel and Tourism Division List" <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 9:12 AM
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Southwest announces which AirTran cities 
'makethe cut'


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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