18 August 2009

US airline industry trending towards low fare

Southwest Airlines' new route from Boston’s Logan International Airport illustrates a new reality: the entire industry has become cost-conscious.
 

"Twenty years ago the low-fare carrier side of the market was a niche. Today, the airline industry is a low-fare industry," Bob Jordan, Southwest’s executive vice president for strategy and planning, told Scott McCartney, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal.

In the past, Southwest concentrated on secondary airports where it could dominate business with quick turnarounds.
 

But the airline’s strategy has changed as it added well-served airports in Philadelphia, Denver and New York’s LaGuardia.
 

Southwest is trying to attract more high-paying business flyers.
 

Southwest is also no longer tied to its point-to-point network and is trying to encourage flyers to make connections.
 

What’s ahead? Possibly more competition as other airlines such as JetBlue are offering competitive fares at busy airports such as Logan.
 

by David Wilkening
 

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