"Southwest CEO Opens Door to Baggage Fees"

[BeenThereDunThat]

The sad thing is that SWA has branded themselves as a reasonable airfare, great connections on-time, 2 Bags Free air carrier. You start chipping away at what brought people in and it becomes a slippery slope towards removing what makes your company brand stand out, IMHO. Of course thanks to all the mega-mergers gradually reducing competition to among 3 or 4 major corporations and pretty soon they all start to look and act alike.

Incrementalism and market-conditioning at its worst. We don't have monopolies so much as we have corporate conspiracies by default. It's like when a pound can of coffee went to 12 oz. and everybody followed suit. Sucks if you ask me.

[Made_it_To_the_Metroplex]

Originally Posted by BeenThereDunThat

The sad thing is that SWA has branded themselves as a reasonable airfare, great connections on-time, 2 Bags Free air carrier. You start chipping away at what brought people in and it becomes a slippery slope towards removing what makes your company brand stand out, IMHO. Of course thanks to all the mega-mergers gradually reducing competition to among 3 or 4 major corporations and pretty soon they all start to look and act alike.

Incrementalism and market-conditioning at its worst. We don't have monopolies so much as we have corporate conspiracies by default. It's like when a pound can of coffee went to 12 oz. and everybody followed suit. Sucks if you ask me.

THIS is my whole point. Thank you for saying it better than I could!

[JimBaker488]

The agreement to open up Love Field in late 2014 permanently limits Southwest Airlines Co. to just 16 gates at the Dallas airport, which raises the question: Will that be enough?
Southwest chairman and chief executive Gary Kelly isn’t worried. He says Southwest will have all the gates it needs at Love Field when the Wright amendment expires on Oct. 13.
“I think 16 gates is plenty. I think we’ll have all we need,” Kelly told analysts and reporters Thursday as he discussed Southwest’s earnings. “It’s a little bit premature to speculate on what the potential is out of this market, but we’re excited about the opportunity.”
Kelly said it’s not unreasonable to think Southwest could handle 10 flights a day at each gate, which would give the carrier 160 departures a day. That’s compared with the 120 to 130 flights daily Southwest has been operating at Love Field in recent years.
“I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t assume 10 [departures], at least right now,” Kelly said.
He said it may not be reasonable to expect 10 departures a day from the bigger aircraft Southwest operates, such as the Boeing 737-800. That’s because the Boeing 737-800, which has 175 seats, would take more time to unload and load than other airplanes in Southwest’s fleet, the bulk of which is smaller Boeing 737-700s and older 737-300s, both with 143 seats.
“On the other hand, I don’t think we’ll have all 800s at Dallas Love Field,” Kelly said.
Since 1980, operations at Love Field have been restricted by a federal law, the Wright amendment. It originally limited Love Field flights to cities in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
In later years, the Wright boundary was expanded to include Mississippi, Alabama, Kansas and Missouri.
Not only could airlines not fly nonstop beyond that boundary, but the Wright amendment stated that airlines could not sell a ticket to take a customer beyond those states, even on a connecting basis.
The deal was pushed by officials from Dallas, Fort Worth, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and competing airlines, which had moved out of Love Field when the larger airport opened.
In 2006, after Southwest pushed for the law’s elimination, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, the airlines and D/FW Airport agreed to a compromise.
The deal provided that airlines flying out of Love Field still had to land once inside the Wright amendment states after Oct. 13, 2006. But they could sell tickets and carry passengers to cities beyond the boundary on a one-stop or connecting basis.
It also provided that Southwest and other airlines at Love Field would be allowed to fly nonstop to any city in the U.S. eight years after the law was enacted. That date comes Oct. 13.
Kelly indicated that Southwest will probably publish its post-Oct. 13 schedule six or seven months in advance.
“We have a lot more opportunities than we have airplanes. So we’ll be doing our best to prioritize what we do first, and then just make sure we don’t get the cart before the horse here,” Kelly said.
“So we’re going to take this expansion opportunity like we would any other and be aggressive when we can and be cautious when that’s what’s called for,” Kelly said. “But we’ve got opportunities in every direction except for south.”
As for cities inside the Wright boundary that Southwest now serves, Kelly said the airline is “not really contemplating any radical changes there,” particularly considering how it has cut back on its short-haul flying over the past decade.
But with Southwest able to fly long distances from Dallas, it should be able to get more customers in other Texas cities to travel through Love Field to the new destinations.
“So I think on balance for the most part, there should be good new benefits for everybody,” Kelly said. “And we’re doing our best to make sure that we pay close attention to all of our cities that we serve, and do the best that we can to take good care of them.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/a...d-opens-up.ece
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These new nonstop routes out of Love next year by SW are gonna have a real adverse effect upon AMRs yields @ DFW.