Online message boards showed consternation among people surprised to find late last month that Southwest Airlines offered no nonstop flights to Orlando beyond summer.
Then news reports this week confirmed that nonstop service to Orlando would end in August, and October would bring a reduction of daily nonstop flights to Baltimore from two to one, causing more groans – and worries.
But both GSP and Southwest said the changes were fairly routine, and not a sign that the airline plans to pull out of GSP.
There wasn’t enough demand to continue service to Orlando, but Southwest has indicated that the Baltimore nonstop flight may return, said Rosylin Weston, GSP’s vice president of communications. She said bookings to other nonstop destinations – Houston, Chicago and Nashville – have pleased both companies.
Michelle Agnew, a spokesperson for Southwest, said the changes were part of routine schedule shifts in response to where profits are likely. She said nonstop flights are also reduced in response to shifts in seasonal travel.
Southwest has apparently deemed ATL the profitable place for flights to Baltimore and Orlando, as CAPA Center for Aviation reported it would be adding those destinations in August.
Agnew said how full flights are helps determine whether to continue service on a specific route, but doesn’t always determine whether or not a flight is profitable. The acquisition of AirTran in 2011 also continues to affect service.
“Our Network Planning Teams are doing a lot of reallocating of flights between Southwest and AirTran, based on demand and profitability. Plain and simple, we have to fly routes that are profitable for us, and high fuel prices are making that tough,” Agnew said.
What’s more, Southwest continues to add markets without increasing its fleet size, calling for a more nimble approach, Agnew said. It recently opened in airports in comparable markets in the five-to-seven daily flights range in Des Moines, Iowa; Flint, Mich., and Wichita, Kan.
On May 7, the company released its schedule through January 4. New nonstop flights, daily and otherwise, were added in several airports, though services that would be ending were not listed.
The next six-month schedule will be released in a couple of weeks.
“Our next release will be a big one because it’ll most likely include spring break travel,” Agnew said.
Weston said Southwest is not the only company at GSP that makes frequent changes. She said she is “never quite sure” what the schedules are going to look like for Allegiant, a low-cost regional carrier that provides service to Florida.
Southwest’s other shifts in nearby airports include dismantling the AirTran hub in Atlanta and adding three nonstop flights to that airport beginning in November.
