Southwest to Acquire LGA Slots

[AA 777]

Looks like Southwest will buy ATA's assets and in turn get 14 - 7 Takeoff & 7 Landing - Slots at LGA. Another move by WN into a congested airport.

No indication of what gates they will use, probably the old ATA gates. I cant imagine any legacy carrier wanting to lease them to Southwest....

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 29e9f.html (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111908dnbussouthwestata.3129e9f.html)

There goes the neighborhood :!: 30 Minute turns? :roll: :lol:

[Futterman]

Whoa.

[PhilDernerJr]

Isn't LGA the best example of an airport an airline like WN would NOT want to operate into?

[JetBlueAirwaysFan]

WOW! I never imagined this in a million years! I just don't understand why they would do this. Wouldn't it jeapordize their ISP station?

[USAF Pilot 07]

Any chance they are buying them in order to hold them and/or possibly resell them to the highest bidder?

[PhilDernerJr]

Any chance they are buying them in order to hold them and/or possibly resell them to the highest bidder?

That's what I was thinking. It just doesn't make sense to me otherwise.

[T-Bird76]

Not sure why everyone is so surprised... WN has been operating in airports that they never once would have been before, i.e. PHL, IAD, DEN, and MSP (soon) etc. Operating out of LGA doesn't affect ISP at all as its two different markets, WN never advertises ISP as a gateway to NYC. Gary Kelly has said a number of times WN would make some moves that would surprise the industry but would do what it must to remain profitable. I'd imagine WN will serve MDW which will be a def thorn in AA and UA's side and hopefully drive down the fares.

[Matt Molnar]

[quote="USAF Pilot 07":1m9jos38]Any chance they are buying them in order to hold them and/or possibly resell them to the highest bidder?

That's what I was thinking. It just doesn't make sense to me otherwise.[/quote:1m9jos38]
Not so sure about that...they purchased them through a bankruptcy court auction that anyone could have bid on. If anyone else wanted them, they could have outbid Southwest.

If they do start LGA service, it will be VERY interesting to see if they can make it work.

[Alex T]

This has been planned for awhile. It was a given LGA-DAL was going to be flown by WN metal by 2014. However WN didn't plan for ATA to go BK. This changed things very quickly.

With that, WN had to find the best way to acquire the LGA slots. In this situation getting it through ATA's BK situation apparantly seemed to be the best way.

For WN to continue it HAS to serve the NYC market, and LGA was the one airport WN wanted to target.

As for folks worried about ISP, not neccesairly so. Two different markets, and also, no different from the LA basin area, and the Bay area as well. For awhile IAH/HOU was served too.

As for turns, theoretically, WN can still do turns, in 35 min or so at the GATE. This is the target WN always plans, come in, get people off, and get people back on within the time period-in this case, 35 minutes. As for sitting for 2 hrs taxing, ya that's another story. Trust me WN has it planned. Quite possibly, they will dedicate some aircrafts to only run LGA routes, so as not to screw up the rest of the system. They do this for PHL and SFO also.

I have turned in 25 min at PHL it can be done.

Alex

[Delta777LR]

Hope to see lots of special Southwest schemes!! Southwest needs to come up with a NY scheme

[NYARTCCFAN]

Well looks like I beat all you city spotters to see SW here in Tampa. I really was hoping to SW do the River Visual when I lived on the Cliffs of the Hudson but the move here to Tampa has given me great opps to view mant schemes(Shamu my Favorite). Southwest is to Tampa what Continental is to EWR.

[Matt Molnar]

Confirmed: they are indeed planning to use the slots.

AP:

Southwest buys landing slots at New York LaGuardia (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-11-18-southwest-laguardia_n.htm)
Updated 1h 19m ago

By David Koenig, AP Business Writer
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. has agreed to pay $7.5 million for bankrupt ATA Airlines' landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport, a move that would raise Southwest's profile in the nation's largest air market.

Southwest would get 14 slots, enough to operate seven takeoffs and seven landings per day at LaGuardia.

The deal is dependent on approval by U.S. bankruptcy court, Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said Tuesday. If approved, Southwest expects to begin flying to LaGuardia next year, she said. [Full Article (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-11-18-southwest-laguardia_n.htm)]

[Matt Molnar]

Update: Southwest's lead scheduling planner wrote a blog post about the deal. Yep, they're serious.



SOUTHWEST AND LAGUARDIA: START SPREADIN’ THE….POSSIBILITY???? (http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/southwest-and-laguardia-start-spreadin%E2%80%99-the%E2%80%A6possibility)
Wed, 11/19/2008 - 05:57 — Bill Owen

Brace yourselves.

Today Southwest Airlines announced our intention to bid to begin service to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.

Yes. You read that correctly. Southwest plans to pursue a bid to start service to LaGuardia Airport. This isn’t just big news, it’s huge. GINORMOUS! I think h-e-double-hockey-sticks just froze over…and I am certain a number of my friends in this industry have yet to pick their jaws up off of the floor!

For those of you that aren’t familiar with LaGuardia Airport (LGA), it’s the most centrally located of New York City’s three major airports. Flying into or out of LGA is guaranteed to put you in a “New York state of mind,” from the views of the Manhattan skyline on your approach or departure right down to the airport’s name itself—Fiorello LaGuardia helped build the airport in the 1930’s while he was mayor of New York City. Located in the borough of Queens, right on the “scenic” waters of Flushing Bay and close to Shea Stadium, it’s the closest major airport to Manhattan. What Love Field is to Dallas, Hobby Airport is to Houston, and Midway Airport is to Chicago, LaGuardia Airport is to New York City. [Full post (http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/southwest-and-laguardia-start-spreadin%E2%80%99-the%E2%80%A6possibility)]

[T-Bird76]

Another note, WN purchased ATA's operating certificate as well.

[Tom_Turner]

I had no idea how or when or where exactly they would do it, but I am not surprised overall that they are coming to New York proper.

Give them time - they'll find a way to expand here as well, and they'll be successful.

Tom

[Matt Molnar]

Another note, WN purchased ATA's operating certificate as well.
Thanks to a Dept. of Justice ruling, the slots are tied to the certificate and could not be sold separately.

[cancidas]

i'm glad this is happening. not only will it add a lot of color to the departure lines but it will hopefully have a deeper (positive) impact on other airlines at LGA. if SWA can make it in PHL, they can make it in LGA. it'll take a lot of hard work and dedicaton but i'm sure that thier recruiting folk will be able to find a work force that will match the work ethic demanded by SWA. best of luck to southwest!

[PhilDernerJr]

I'm eager to see AA's LGA-DFW fares finally drop to human levels.

[T-Bird76]

I'm eager to see AA's LGA-DFW fares finally drop to human levels.

Don't forget UA's as well. However the fares haven't been to bad lately to ORD, less then 200 in many cases. However this will help with the walk up fares coming down. With WN's hub at MDW this will give LGA passengers a great many options.

[Matt Molnar]

Let the route speculation begin!

MDW of course
DAL
BWI for connecting service probably?
FLL because we can never have enough flights down there
MCO?

Anywhere else?

[Alex T]

Let the route speculation begin!

MDW of course
DAL
BWI for connecting service probably?
FLL because we can never have enough flights down there
MCO?

Anywhere else?

DAL is out due to wright amendment.

You guys already know about the perimeter, so anything beyond DEN is out.

My speculation is if they don't do 7 to MDW is..

2-MDW 2-BWI 1-DEN 1-HOU 1-MCO

Sat 1-LAS, 2-MDW 1-BWI 1-DEN 1-HOU 1-MCO

Alex

[EFDspotter]

Hope to see lots of special Southwest schemes!! Southwest needs to come up with a NY scheme

We have been talking about this on HoustonSpotters.net and the consensus is that we'd like to see SWA do a HOU to LGA run. A lot of peeps don't want to deal with IAH for domestic travel.

I would also like to see a New York One paint scheme!

[T-Bird76]

Hope to see lots of special Southwest schemes!! Southwest needs to come up with a NY scheme

We have been talking about this on HoustonSpotters.net and the consensus is that we'd like to see SWA do a HOU to LGA run. A lot of peeps don't want to deal with IAH for domestic travel.

I would also like to see a New York One paint scheme!

I think they should call it "Big Apple One" myself. Wouldn't surprise me to see this come out soon with LGA coming online.

[Alex T]

Requirements for a State Bird plane falls under a certain amount of market share for the STATE, as well as I believe the number of departures must be around 200 for the state. Not sure if the requirement is still around...

This is why we only see it for Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Maryland, Nevada and just now added Illinois.

Texas and California are obvious for the immense presence, New Mexico is due to the market share they have out of ABQ, Arizona TUS and PHX combined give it a large state presence, and Maryland, immense departures out of BWI.

Illinois was just added obviously due to the large presence at MDW and immense departures. Nevada was for LAS and RNO too.

Under these qualifications its a wonder why Florida doesn't have a state yet.

I would be very surprised if New York got a bird plane, however with BUF, ALB and ISP in the picture and now LGA this may help push it for a State Bird. Would be nice to see!

Alex

[Matt Molnar]

ISP: 30ish
BUF: 20ish
ALB: 13ish
LGA: 7

= about 70 flights. :(

[PhilDernerJr]

What's State Bird plane?

[NIKV69]

Would think there has to be an LAS route. Won't have trouble filling that plane.

[LGA777]

Would think there has to be an LAS route. Won't have trouble filling that plane.

Nick they could only fly LGA-LAS on Saturdays, due to the perimeter rule.

ATA had good loads if I recall to HOU and many where connecting to WN. I would not be surprised if they do 2 of those. Something else to consider while they can only have seven departures weekdays on Saturdays they could have 20 if they wanted and had the gates. Perhaps some Saturday only service to Florida cities if they desired. Not sure how big a weight reduction the 737-700 would take to LAS and or PHX on Saturdays, something else to consider.

Regards

LGA777

[Alex T]

What's State Bird plane?

Where WN paints a plane into the flag of the state they serve. They have them for the following states and the names.

California- California One
Nevada-Nevada One
Arizona-Arizona One
New Mexico- New Mexico One
Illinois- Illinois One
Texas- Lonestar One
Maryland- Maryland One

Alex