Southwest has worldwide ambitions but Jekyll and Hyde luggage attitude
US destination-dominated Southwest is moving towards their goal of being an international carrier. But at the same time, while it heavily advertises its free baggage service, there are no immediate plans to extend that popular perk to its merger partner AirTran.
Why not, particularly when it is such a clear attraction for passengers?
"I can actually make a case that for business reasons, we may not want to" link flights soon, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said during a conference call with analysts, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As an airline setting examples for other carriers, any news of Southwest carries implications for the entire industry.
Southeast CEO Gary Kelly told investors last week that the airline is "fully committed" to launching international service from Houston’s Hobby Airport by 2015. He said he expects Hobby to be a focal point of international travel.
Dallas-based Southwest bought AirTran last year, but it plans to continue to charge baggage fees on AirTran flights until merger operations are completed. That is not expected until 2014.
In addition to bag fees, AirTran also has business class that it sells for higher fares, and assigned seats.
"Southwest has none of those — and passengers may be confused to fly both in one trip," writes the Journal.
"If you were to challenge us and say, ‘How are you going to recover the $300 million worth of fees that AirTran collects, I would tell you that yeah, I think that’ll be a take-away," Kelly said.
Even though the company may get more revenue from linking the two airlines’ flights together, "I just don’t believe you’re going to see a material profit benefit."
As for Hobby, he said a major campaign was underway to obtain approvals for the service by 2015.
Southwest announced it will work with Amadeus IT Group o come up with a reservation system for international flights, which AirTran President Bob Jordan said is "key to moving these international markets from AirTran to Southwest over time."
"I am really pleased with the performance of our international markets, and I’m just very optimistic about their future potential," said Jordan.
Independent airline consultant Robert Herbst said international service is crucial to the merging airlines as their "only open door" to future growth.
By David Wilkening
David
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