"Southwest to change flights at all 3 Bay Area airports"

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Southwest to change flights at all 3 Bay Area airports
By George Raine
The San Francisco (CA) Chronicle
 

Southwest Airlines said Wednesday that it will add and subtract several
daily flights from Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, to accommodate
rising demand in some cases and in an effort to be more efficient in others.

The air carrier said it will eliminate two daily flights from Oakland to
five destinations - Burbank, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ontario (San Bernardino
County) and San Diego - but will still have a sufficient number of flights
on those routes to accommodate passenger demand.

At the same time, Southwest said it will begin daily nonstop service between
Oakland and Austin, Texas, saying the airline has seen rising demand to the
state capital on connecting service on flights from Oakland.

"Southwest Airlines is concerned about slowing economic growth, and we want
our flight schedule to be built around flights that are in high demand,"
Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines chief executive, said in a statement.

Southwest also is adding two daily departures from San Francisco to San
Diego, for a total of 10. Southwest will begin service between San Jose and
Denver, with three departures daily. It will trim one daily departure from
San Jose to both Los Angeles and Ontario. After eliminating those flights,
there will be 13 flights from San Jose to Los Angeles and eight to Ontario.
All the changes are effective May 10.

Southwest is the dominant airline at Oakland International Airport,
representing 60.6 percent of the airport's flights in 2006, said Rosemary
Barnes, the spokeswoman for the airport. She anticipates the number will be
unchanged for 2007 when an accounting is complete.

After the changes, Southwest will have 135 daily nonstop flights from
Oakland. Oakland is and will continue to be Southwest's busiest airport in
California in the number of flights and the sixth busiest in its system,
said Barnes.

After the reductions on May 10, there will be 15 daily flights from Oakland
to Burbank, 12 to Las Vegas, 18 to Los Angeles, 10 to Ontario and 16 to San
Diego.

Airline spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said of the Oakland-Austin route, "The
demand we see and why we added a nonstop flight is partially tech
sector-driven," as there is a sizable high-tech community in Austin, "but
it's really just demand between two large metropolitan areas in which we
have a very loyal and large customer base."

The airline, based in Dallas, started serving Oakland International in May
1989. It operated at San Francisco International Airport from 1982 to 2001,
then pulled out before returning last August. It began service at Mineta San
Jose International Airport in 1993, and is now the airport's major carrier,
with nearly half the number of flights and passengers.


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