Southwest makes historic cutback and Virgin explores new destinations
In airline news, two firsts: Southwest for the first time cut capacity. And Virgin America has launched an aggressive repositioning plan that will see the North American branch offering departures to Canada.
Southwest reduced seat miles for the year by about five percent.
"This is another big schedule change for Southwest," lead schedule planner Bill Owen. The move will start Aug. 15 through the end of October.
But observers should not make too much of the schedule change.
"The banner headline about this new schedule would be ‘Seasonality,’" Owen said. "We’re using our flight schedule optimizer more and more with every new schedule to respond to normal seasonal shifts in traffic. We’re not just adjusting frequencies, but adding and deleting entire markets as needed."
Southwest officials say they continue to have aggressive expansion plans, as does Virgin America which is starting its first-ever flights to Canada.
“In what is being seen as a direct challenge to Air Canada, the airline said it would serve Toronto Pearson International Airport with daily flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) from as early as June 2010,” according to wire service reports.
In addition, Virgin intends to serve Orlando International Airport with daily non-stop flights from both LAX and SFO from Aug. 19 of this year.
“Coming on the heels of the Company’s new Department of Transportation-approved ownership structure, Virgin America is poised for major growth in 2010,” said the reports.
The airline will see six additional aircraft enter its fleet this year, with three additional aircraft scheduled for the first quarter of 2011.
By quarter one of 2011 the airline’s fleet will have grown by almost one-third.
Why those cities? Virgin American President David Cush says they are both world-class destinations.
“Both cities are major travel destinations from the West Coast, and we’re looking forward to introducing our service to travelers in these and other new markets in 2010 and beyond,” he says.
While the news will almost certainly be a boon for consumers by dragging down prices, it will likely be a thorn in the side of Canada’s largest carrier, Air Canada.
By David Wilkening
David
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