Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines announced Friday that they had entered a lease agreement for 36 slot pairs at Newark-Liberty International Airport (EWR), allowing Southwest to operate as many as 18 daily flights.
Contingent upon the merger of Continental and United Airlines closing by November 30th, as well as government approval, Southwest would begin some flights at Newark in March 2011, with a full schedule running by June 2011.
The divestiture of slots by Continental
“We are excited by the opportunity to initiate service from Newark, New Jersey, and we plan to enable that service starting next March through continued flight schedule optimization using our existing fleet,” said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President of Strategy and Planning. “We’ve seen tremendous demand for Southwest Airlines in the New York City/Newark area in the past year. Customers are clamoring for our unique brand of hospitality, great value, low fares, extensive flight network, and our terrific Employees who deliver outstanding Customer Service. Adding Newark provides an excellent complement to our LaGuardia and Long Island service, giving Customers one more option for travel to and from the greater New York City/New Jersey area. This service also will provide a needed injection of low fares and competition into the New York/Newark market.”
Southwest is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the FAA to obtain the necessary gates and facilities to launch service.
