Southwest adding NON-STOP to Washington (Baltimore)

[writerranger]

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines announced today it's adding 18 flights in 15 cities -- including Oklahoma City. The flights being added this summer include a new daily nonstop flight between Oklahoma City and Baltimore starting by Aug. 4.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly says the fleet will grow between 7 and 8 percent this year with the addition of 37 new Boeing 737s.

Takes a little wind out of the new XJet service. This is great news!

---------------------------

[jbrown84]

We are on a roll!

[brianinok]

This is great news.

New non-stop services has been added from OKC to the following cities/airports recently:

Albuquerque (XJet)
Austin (XJet)
Baltimore/Washington (Southwest)*
Los Angeles (United)*
Ontario/Los Angeles (XJet)
Sacremento (XJet)
San Diego (XJet)
San Antonio (XJet)
Washington DC/Dulles (United)*

I don't want to make this into a competitive thing, but I have put a * next to those flights that Tulsa does not have. We are beginning to distance ourselves from them in flight offerings. That only makes since because OKC has more traffic than them. It bothered me for years that Tulsa had the exact same service with less traffic. It was like we were getting the shaft. Plus, we also have US Airways service to Phoenix and Las Vegas they don't have. Speaking of US Airways, I sure would like them to add Charlotte and Philadelphia to their offering in OKC....

[CMSturgeon]

I've never... actually I HAVE been to the airport. Was dropping someone else off. That's about as close as I have gotten to an airplane in my life. I feel po' when I say that out loud.

[venture]

Thank United for twisted Southwest's arm for us. Okay...time for Florida. Umm AirTran...where are you?

[HOT ROD]

^^, hopefully both United and Southwest can co-exist in the DC area-OKC market. IM SURE the seats will sell!!

There should be enough for both airlines to survive, and probably for United to add a mainliner like an A319 once the news gets the demand. Ditto that for LAX.

And it is smart for WN to service us via BWI - that way, NO direct competition while both serve the same market indirectly.

I wouldn't think we'd get more than one flight to BWI tho. Now we need WN to give us some Chicago (MDW) and UA to give us some SFO nonstop service, then OKC would have nonstop service to every major HUB airport city. Hopefully, for 2007, we will hit/surpass 4M pax.

Then, we can finish the coasts (SEA, MIA, BOS) but I'd imagine those would be direct not non-stops. (Although, it makes sense for Alaska Airlines to have at least one non-stop revenue service between SEA and OKC at least a couple of times a week for the maintenance sched).

You know, that's an idea - we should try to get more airline maintenance into WRWA and Wiley Post, then we might be able to convince the airlines to give us a revenue flight option (once a week, at least... until things get going). A very good way to get flights to markets that we probably wouldn't otherwise justify getting non-stop; and we wouldn't havve to break the bank to support revenue.

[OUman]

I wonder about the feasibility of these. The n/s's shouldn't intrude on D.C. traffic on the United Express service, Baltimore-Washington Int'l is more for people headed to Baltimore althoug it is halfway between both cities, but Southwest(WN) has tried Sat-only n/s's between BWI and OKC and has dropped it both time, let's see how this route does this time. From another forum I'm a member of, this will likely be a Dallas Love Field (DAL)-Oklahoma City Will Rogers-BWI routing.

On the other hand, Air Tran will be a good addition to MCO, but I highly doubt it, the MCO route has been tried twice already and failed to garner much interest. Maybe a couple years down the road.

[Karried]

Too bad Southwest is so expensive.

[OUman]

^WN is still the cheapest airline out there, sure its fares are not as low as they used to be and sometimes the majors have lower fares than it does, but by far WN still has the lowest industry-wide fares available. FL is the only other LCC that comes close.

[Karried]

That hasn't been my experience when I've searched and I've searched every flight every time we plan a trip. Southwest is usually more expensive everytime (and if you happen to find a flight cheaper, they're sold out). Plus Southwest overbooks so much.. in the past, they've always asked passengers to give up seats. I don't use them anymore but if you can get a good deal - great.

[HOT ROD]

^^ OU man, that's great that WN is routing the flight as DAL-OKC-BWI, that way, we can make sure the plane is profitable without having it ALL on OKC.

OKC turns into a "sort-of" mini-hub with this routing???? It should ensure the plane is full - a smart move which other airlines should do

- like what I mentioned for United with these routings; ORD-OKC-SFO, IAD-OKC-LAX, MIA-OKC-SEA; or some variation thereof.

[jbrown84]

I'm flying Southwest to San Antonio $79 one way. Seemed like a good deal to me.