Southwest lands in Boston

I had known that Southwest Airlines was going to start service from Boston for a while, but it wasn't until my good friend Dan at Things in the Sky talked more about it that I started thinking about how I could go and see it happen. Dan kindly sent a last-minute email to the wonderful Paula Berg at Southwest, who put me on the list of attendees for the weekend's festivities.

On Saturday, Dan and I showed up at Terminal E at Logan Airport. We got our gate passes and wandered over to the Southwest gates, which used to be the old Northwest gates before they made the move over to Terminal A with Delta. Having used those gates before, I can say that Southwest certainly did a good job of sprucing up the place and adding a bit of color.

We waited around for the ferry flight from Dallas' Love Field to arrive; Southwest flight 8500 touched down around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and received a water cannon salute as it pulled up to gate E1A. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to join the folks down on the ramp.
Cheering Southwest employees and friends of Southwest streamed into the terminal, and Southwest PR Manager Paul Flaningan made a short speech. Then Southwest's Boston station manager, Brian Kunkel, told the crowd, "Five years from now... it's going to be one if by land, two if by sea, and if by air, Southwest it will be!"
Next, it was off to the House of Blues (right near Fenway Park) for dinner with a wonderful bunch of both Southwest employees as well as a few great Southwest fans from FlyerTalk. Paula Berg and Christi Day, both from Southwest's Emerging Media department, were there, as well as Ginger Hardage, Southwest's SVP of Culture and Communications. They all exuded Texas-style hospitality, even though I was the 'local'. Dinner was followed by some fantastic karaoke.
I got up bright and early the next morning to meet up with Dan and Drew (curbcrusher on Twitter and FlyerTalk) to take the subway over to Logan. By the time we got to the gate, passengers were already boarding the very first Southwest flight from Boston - flight 1309 to Chicago Midway, a Boeing 737-700. The plane pushed back shortly thereafter, and took off around 8:40.
We also stuck around for the first arrival, which flew in from Baltimore/Washington late that morning. In the meantime, Southwest had put out quite the breakfast spread near the gates, handing out pastries, bagels, muffins, and coffee. I observed quite a few passengers saying how excited they were that Southwest was finally coming to Boston - it's an airline that really knows how to build up a solid fan base.

Monday morning I ventured over to Logan one more time for the airline's press conference, which was held outside of the airline's check-in area in Terminal E. The nice thing about this area is that Southwest is the only domestic airline there. Because all of the other carriers are international, their flights (with the exception of the morning BA flight to LHR) all leave starting in the mid-afternoon, meaning that the terminal is pretty empty for a good part of the day. Matthew Brelis, Massport's Director of Media Relations, was kind enough to take me from Terminal E over to the water taxi stand, where Southwest employees and the news media had gathered. A Massport fire boat switched on its sirens and started spraying water as soon as the boat carrying Southwest CEO Gary Kelly (you can see him in the picture below, waving) came near.
Once everyone had disembarked from the boat, we walked over to where a duck boat was waiting for us, complete with Southwest banners on the sides. I was lucky enough to grab a seat in the back. The boat (really an amphibious tour bus) drove us over to Terminal E, but the driver, unfamiliar with the layout of the airport, accidentally took us on a brief detour on the highway. But we pulled up in front of the terminal soon enough, and the "Lexington Minute Men" were there, playing drums and flutes.
Here's a video with a few clips from the duck boat ride (note the driver asking Gary if he's really in charge of Southwest) and one from inside the terminal, where the airline was presented with an official citation from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Inside, Ginger Hardage, Massport CEO Tom Kinton, and Gary Kelly all addressed the assembled crowd, which was mostly comprised of the media and employees (although I did notice a few curious passers-by who stopped to watch, too).
Southwest also handed out some delicious clam chowder and iced tea following the speeches, and I even had the opportunity to have my picture taken with Gary himself.

I had never been to an station opening before, and it was really a wonderful experience. I met a lot of great people who were both Southwest employees as well as those who were just Southwest fans. I was able to observe first-hand the immense brand loyalty that Southwest has, and based upon the incredible company culture that I saw, it's not difficult to figure out why. The employees are genuinely excited to be working at Southwest, and it shows. The airline also extends a welcoming attitude to bloggers like myself, which is quite refreshing. Right after he got off the boat at Logan, Paula introduced me to Gary as an aviation blogger. Gary put his hand on my shoulder and said, "We're glad you're here" - not something that I expected from an airline CEO. A big thanks to all of the folks at Southwest who worked hard to make the opening weekend here at Boston a successful and enjoyable one!

Southwest wants to buy Frontier

In a pretty surprising announcement today, Southwest Airlines has said that they've submitted a proposal to purchase Denver-based Frontier Airlines, which is still under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Southwest will bid for the airline in a bankruptcy auction next month, along with Republic, which said last month that it would bid for Frontier. There aren't too many details out right now, but some interesting information is available over at the Southwest blog. Some excerpts:

What’s in proposal?
What we can say is that we are interested in a substantial investment in Frontier and to operate Frontier as a wholly-owned subsidiary, independently and separately from Southwest Airlines, for a period of time until the carrier could be combined into Southwest.

Is this a response to Republic’s bid?
Frontier has been in bankruptcy since April 2008, and we’ve been considering a bid for some time, independent of any action Republic took with its bid proposal. In the past month, we began an intensive study of the airline and expressed that interest to Frontier.

More details will emerge soon, but this has some big implications for service at Denver, where Southwest has been going up against well-established United and hometown carrier Frontier. One question that I have - what happens to the Airbuses that Frontier operates? Would Southwest keep them for a while, or swap 'em out eventually for Boeings?

As for what this means for the Republic deal, here's an excerpt from a press release issued today:

The Republic investment agreement provides for an auction period, during which Frontier may seek higher or otherwise better competing bids. If Frontier identifies such a bid, it can terminate the Republic investment agreement and accept the other offer. Under the auction procedures approved by the Court, interested bidders must submit an initial proposal by Aug. 3, 2009, and a final proposal by Aug. 10, 2009. Frontier and its advisors, in consultation with the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee appointed in Frontier’s Chapter 11 cases, will conduct an auction, if necessary, on Aug. 11, 2009, to consider all qualified proposals and determine the highest or otherwise best proposal.

photo by Taurus Photographix from Flickr

WestJet announces largest-ever expansion

If there's a Canadian airline on the rise, it's definitely WestJet. Originally started in Calgary in 1996, it was originally only going to fly to destinations in western Canada (hence the name). But the airline quickly grew in subsequent years, and is now the second largest airline in Canada (behind Air Canada) and the largest Canadian low-cost carrier. WestJet has, more recently, announced plans to introduce a frequent flier program and has announced a codeshare agreement with Southwest Airlines (another one is in the works with Air France/KLM).

And earlier today, the airline announced what it billed as its "largest-ever seasonal non-stop flight schedule" in the company's history, adding 11 destinations for the winter schedule. Pretty much all of them are warm-weather getaways (Miami, Mexico, Cuba, St. Maarten, etc.) although I was rather surprised to see Atlantic City on the list. Year-round service to Yellowknife from Edmonton and San Diego from Calgary was also added. The airline's transborder and international capacity will increase 45% year over year, compared with just 5% domestically.

"This schedule represents significant expansion on both the transborder (U.S.) and international fronts," said Chris Avery, WestJet's VP, Revenue and Planning. "Both are strategic decisions as we continue to aggressively pursue and earn profitable market share in these critical areas. WestJet is well on its way to becoming the market leader in many of the most popular sun destinations in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean."

WestJet also has to be taking advantage of the rather precarious situation that its chief rival, Air Canada, finds itself in. Air Canada has been dealing with less-than-stellar relations with some of its unions, and is trying to avert a possible strike during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Any significant labor disruption at Air Canada could be enough to push the airline into bankruptcy for the second time in the past ten years - something that WestJet, which is not a unionized carrier, would be sure to exploit.

jetBlue smokes competition in J.D. Power survey

The 2009 J.D. Power and Associates 2009 North American Airline Satisfaction Study was released earlier today, and jetBlue came out top, not just in the low-cost carrier group but overall, as well - for the fourth year in a row. For the 'traditional network carrier' category, Alaska topped the list for the second consecutive year. (Just to be clear, JD Power defines low-cost carriers as airlines that "operate single-cabin aircraft with typically lower fares," while 'traditional network carriers' "operate multicabin aircraft and use multiple airport hubs." It also considers AirTran to be an LCC, although it does operate multicabin aircraft.)

I spoke with Paula Sonkin, VP Travel and Real Estate at J.D. Power, who said that cost was the biggest influence for most passengers, and they've not been favorably impressed by the various sources of ancillary revenue (read: fees and charges) that the airlines have added recently. This, along with with declines in in-flight service, has led to overall customer satisfaction with airlines this year on the decline for the third straight year, reaching a four-year low (ouch). The only airline that improved its position versus last year was Southwest.

That's not to say that everything is gloom and doom, however. Sonkin pointed out that the airlines that did well - for example, Alaska, which was 4th place in 2007 and rose to 1st last year - did so because they focused on improving the things that were in their control. Fuel prices, a weak economy - those things can't be changed, and the things that occur as a result (such as increased fees and lowered employee morale, which can lead to poorer service) can be expected, if not necessarily liked. But Alaska really made strides because it improved its pre-flight process - that is, its website, the ticket booking process, and especially the check-in process, which the airline made faster and friendlier. Also on the plus side, passenger-reported flight delays and check-in times were reduced, and the general on-time arrival rate went up by more than 5% versus last year. “Despite the economic stresses that airlines are under, they are recognizing the value of passengers’ time and trying to make air travel more expedient and efficient,” said Dale Haines, senior director of the travel practice at J.D. Power. “Unfortunately, any improvements in customer satisfaction are being offset by passenger displeasure with cutbacks on in-flight services, increases in fees and issues with the helpfulness and courtesy of flight crews.”

jetBlue did very well, especially in the aircraft category (of course, flying a bunch of relatively new planes with in-flight TV might help), although Southwest really managed to place a strong second place (tied with WestJet), and the trend is that the airline is closing the gap with jetBlue. All of the airlines were scored on a 1000 point scale, and interestingly, even the lowest-ranked low-cost carrier (AirTran) still managed to beat the top-ranked traditional network carrier (see charts below). Delta and Continental performed adequately for the network carriers, with US Airways (haven't they branded themselves an LCC?) coming in dead last - maybe it was that whole experiment with charging $2 for drinks that really did them in. For the full results, head over to J.D. Power.

photo by MHJohnston from Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons

Southwest to begin Milwaukee service

photo by YoLoPey

This morning, Southwest Airlines announced that it Milwaukee, Wisconsin would be the fourth addition to its route network this year, following Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York LaGuardia, and Boston. Apparently, Southwest has been adding these new destinations without adding any new aircraft to its fleet; instead, it's been trimming unpopular services and shuffling around resources. "As we have previously announced, we essentially slowed our 2009 and 2010 fleet growth to zero," said Southwest President and CEO Gary Kelly. "All of these new market opportunities are made possible without the addition of a single airplane by our continuous flight schedule optimization process."

Southwest starts flying to Milwaukee on November 1, and it will put the airline (which already has a formidable presence at Chicago's Midway airport) up against Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines (formerly known as Midwest Express), which is partly owned by Northwest Airlines. While Northwest has been known to aggressively defend its turf against low-cost airlines, Southwest doesn't seem scared, having first started flying out of Minneapolis/St.Paul (a key Northwest hub) and now Milwaukee. AirTran also has a good number of flights out of Milwaukee and will have to compete as well.

But I think that Midwest is the airline that should really be concerned with this news. The airline has already retired a significant portion of its fleet and only has nine Boeing 717s left (the rest of its flying is outsourced to Republic and SkyWest as "Midwest Connect"), and if Southwest provides significant competition - which I expect it will - on routes out of Milwaukee, Midwest might not make it.

American, Delta inspect MD-80s

photo by Kevin Boydston

American Airlines yesterday announced that it was canceling 300 flights on Wednesday in order to inspect wiring covers in its 300-strong MD-80 fleet, with an American spokesperson calling the move an "abundance of caution" by the airline. Later in the day, Delta also said that it would voluntarily reinspect 117 of its MD-88s as well as 16 MD-90s. Delta said that as of last night, it had not found any problems, but the airline was nonetheless forced to cancel about 325 flights yesterday, with a few more following today.

Other airlines flying the MD-80 also reviewed their fleets as well: Allegiant Air said that it reviewed its 35 MD-80s without needed to cancel flights; a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines said that its 10-strong fleet of MD-80s operated "normally".

The checks come at a time when airlines are scrambling to comply with FAA audits and safety directives. Earlier in the month, the agency fined Southwest Airlines $10.2 million for flying 46 of its Boeing 737s without proper safety checks. American Eagle grounded 25 CRJs last week in order to double-check inspection papers on the hydraulic systems and rudders.