Southwest will jump into the Oakland-Long Beach market. (Image: Oakland Airport)
In domestic route developments, Southwest expands within California and adds several other markets; American adds three routes from the Midwest; United adds a spoke from its Denver hub and drops one from Dulles; Alaska tries a new Kona gateway; and JetBlue adjusts the launch of LAX Mint flights.
Southwest Airlines will add Long Beach, California to its map on June 5, when it begins operating four flights a day from there to Oakland. The carrier is offering $49 one-way fares for travel through November 4, with an April 14 booking deadline. Southwest also has new service starting April 12 on several routes, with one daily flight in each market, including Atlanta to Greenville-Spartanburg; Baltimore/Washington to Minneapolis-St. Paul; Chicago Midway to Dayton, Ohio and to Flint and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Newark to Las Vegas and to Orlando; Phoenix to Wichita, Kans.; and St. Louis to Wichita and to Des Moines, Iowa.
With the Republican Convention in Cleveland coming up in July, American Airlines this week kicked off new Eagle service to Cleveland from Washington Reagan National with three flights a day (at the same time. American dropped its Cleveland-Phoenix service). Other new American Eagle service that started this week includes three flights a day from Washington Reagan National to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and two a day between Chicago O’Hare and Providence.
United is adding two new routes from Denver International (Image: Jim Glab)
United has added a new spoke from its Denver hub, launching daily service to Richmond, Virginia; it’s the longest flight and the westernmost point served no-stop from Richmond. Meanwhile, United has set June 8 as the last day for United Express service between its Washington Dulles hub and Moline, Illinois.
Bellingham, Washington isn’t all that far from Seattle, but Alaska Airlines decided the city needs its own service to the Big Island of Hawaii. Alaska said it will operate once-a-week seasonal service (on Saturdays) between Bellingham and Kona from November 12 through April 1, using a 737-800.
According to Airlineroute.net, JetBlue has moved up the starting date for putting a Mint-equipped aircraft onto its Boston-Los Angeles route. The first Mint-equipped A321 will start flying LAX-Boston on October 20 instead of October 30. By November 17, the premium cabins should be on all three of JetBlue’s three daily flights in the market.
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Again speaking of fees, Alaska looks too much at its on-board entertainment as a profit center and not enough as a customer service weapon.
Alaska competes with Southwest at many airports in the U.S., as well as now in Mexico, which has far more attractive free choices.
Combine 1) free bags and 2) free entertainment with Southwest’s 3) no cancellation fee policy and you have in Southwest a very robust competitor to Alaska.
Speaking of fees, if Alaska dropped its bag fee, I think it would have a very positive impact.
Any time it cuts a different profile to define what a Western U.S. Airline *should be*, I think it’s something the other carriers could learn from.
Thanks, Tom.
It’s interesting that at Bellingham increased nonstop service has to depend on the Canadian market. The city has just some 100,000 residents plus a state university with some 15,000 students, with no significant Washington state population centers nearby.
Fee-greedy Allegiant Air has thrived in part by offering nonstop service between cities that haven’t seen any for years or even ever. In my opinion, Alaska has been smart to join this party.
Your “Canadian Bacon” theory is compelling, Don. I noticed though, that both the new Kona route and the existing BLI to Maui route are only offered once a week.
I get the feeling that the *real* plan by Alaska is to dominate flights to Hawaii from the West Coast in the same way that they do the Great White North. By leasing gates at BLI, it prevents a competitor from undercutting them from that gateway.
Alaska also knows that the Big Three prefer flights to Hawaii from their respective hubs, not from second or third tier airports.
Vancouver and Victoria endure less competition thus higher fares, as well as significantly higher airline taxes.
Bellingham saves Canadians from driving through typically horrific traffic along
the I-5 in Seattle in order to reach Sea-Tac for lower fares, which makes it all the
more attractive.
Departing from Bellingham need not involve changes in Seattle. As an example, Allegiant Air serves cities as far away as Phoenix and San Diego nonstop and in winter also operates
nonstop to Hawaii.
GSP-ATL. Just what we need in ATL another useless spoke that consumes a gate/slot
It’s typical Alaska mastercraft: seize gates that appear to expand your reach when it’s really about reinforcing your fortress hubs.
Demand for flights to Hawaii from the West Coast is actually seasonal, with traffic peaking in the Northwest during the winter (surprise) and summer in Southern California and other warmer markets.
Thus, if demand from LA goes up, you need a home for that extra plane that meets that need during the winter. Seattle and Portland already saturated by Alaska and smaller in population than LA to boot. Bellingham and its big retiree population is one of the few safety valves available at the time of year.
Seems like the new Alaska route out of Bellingham could be an attempt to steal more passengers from Vancouver versus Seattle. Delta does have a Hawaii flight from there as well as many other routes. Maybe this is a way to ramp up the Alaska/Delta battle for the NW ?