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Bad news, especially the St. Louis to ABQ route, which is the only nonstop flight available between the two cities. I agree with Merlander about Southwest no longer being a bargain and s/he is right about the hedging of jet fuel contracts being the reason. I've flown a lot over the last year plus, and Southwest, to me, is no longer the airline it once was, when it comes to experience in the plane cabin.
Bad news, especially the St. Louis to ABQ route, which is the only nonstop flight available between the two cities. I agree with Merlander about Southwest no longer being a bargain and s/he is right about the hedging of jet fuel contracts being the reason. I've flown a lot over the last year plus, and Southwest, to me, is no longer the airline it once was, when it comes to experience in the plane cabin.
I don't think that the in-plane experience has changed much over the years. That is still pretty good. The cost and the ability to get a reasonable fare has been difficult.
I have to admit that we hav been driving or using a bus a lot more often recently.
One thing that has changed over the past several years is who Southwest is catering to. It used to be seniors (the senior fares were heavily discounted and fully refundable always) and families, who boarded prior to Group A (just after seniors and those with physical limitations).
Now, Southwest caters to business travelers, just like all the other airlines. The families with children board between groups A & B, and senior fares are much higher than previously. Priority boarding is sold for $10 per leg, and families fend for themselves.
Another thing: Southwest now advertises heavily, and their ridership has therefore increased. As they became more popular, the quality of the experience has been somewhat affected. Don't get me wrong: The flight crew and attendants are still great, and they still offer ticketing changes online, with no penalties. No other airline can match them in that regard. But packed planes do come with a cost.
Have the nonstop flights out of Albuquerque and Tucson affected anyone personally? I use to be able to visit family by taking a 45 min. flight out of Tucson to Albuquerque. Now, I drive a hour and 45 minutes to the airport, and the flight from Tucson to Albuquerque is at least 3 1/2 hrs. long. Fly to Las Vegas or Los Angeles, change planes and continue to Albuquerque! So, I have to find someone willing to drive the six hours to Albuquerque. What a joke! No other non stop flights available; no trains, and my husband won't let me take the bus. Same thing applies to those in Albuquerque flying back to Tucson. Plus, my son in law use to hop the Albuquerque to El Paseo flight for his work. No longer! He drives four hours to El Paseo. So unhappy with Southwest!
Have the nonstop flights out of Albuquerque and Tucson affected anyone personally? I use to be able to visit family by taking a 45 min. flight out of Tucson to Albuquerque. Now, I drive a hour and 45 minutes to the airport, and the flight from Tucson to Albuquerque is at least 3 1/2 hrs. long. Fly to Las Vegas or Los Angeles, change planes and continue to Albuquerque! So, I have to find someone willing to drive the six hours to Albuquerque. What a joke! No other non stop flights available; no trains, and my husband won't let me take the bus. Same thing applies to those in Albuquerque flying back to Tucson. Plus, my son in law use to hop the Albuquerque to El Paseo flight for his work. No longer! He drives four hours to El Paseo. So unhappy with Southwest!
Haven't had the need to go that way, but it's certainly something I think Southwest was making plenty of money on and only cut it because it shunted demand away from their more profitable PHX-ABQ duopoly with America West/USAir/American/whoever buys them.
It's not that hard to drive the 90 minutes to Sky Harbor and take that flight, though it is very expensive.
Your husband won't let you take the bus? That's not something that's the airlines' fault.
A message to local entrepreneurs- how about starting some puddlejumper service from ABQ to AZA and TUS? You can't tell me there's no profit in it if Southwest routinely gets $200/head for a 45-minute flight to PHX.
I have owned and been a part owner in a small commercial service...
Do you know Southwest's actual operating expenses and profits? I don't...
Let's do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation.
Assume 70% seats filled aboard a fleet of 3 CRJ-200's, seating capacity 50 passengers. Figure they're at work 8 hours a day each, with AZA-ABQ-TUS service the only service offered. This amounts to six daily roundtrips between both ABQ-AZA and ABQ-TUS.
Each 2 hour flight (including gate time, taxi time, etc.) would cost an airline:
$625 Aircraft Lease Cost ($75k/mo. incl. maintenance)
$1400 Fuel (2500 pounds, $3.75/gallon)
$10 Insurance
$500 Crew (incl. benefits)
$100 Ground Crew (incl. benefits)
$171 Gate Fees (assume $250k/yr. for these not-so-sought after airports, also assume only one gate per airport, off in their non-TSA sections if they have them)
$200 General/Administrative
Comes out to about $3k per flight. Therefore, an average break-even ticket price is $85.71, or probably $99 by the time you factor in taxes, TSA, etc. Note that this is probably higher than the cost per passenger on a Southwest flight, given economies of scale.
The question is if 100 people per day want to go each way; pretty sure they did up until recently on the TUS flights, and pretty sure many times that many would pile in on a nonstop to Phoenix-Mesa if it cost half what SW charged to go to Sky Harbor.
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some SWA changes
