Now that the schedule has been extended, I figured it would be easier to discuss here instead of overloading the WN Network/Fleet thread.

Not really since not much was added.

Here are the following adds that were made by WN in today's schedule extension:

• Saturday-only DAL-CRP nonstop service
• Weekend-only RIC-TPA nonstop service
• Return of BDL-FLL, BUF-FLL, BOI-MDW, EWR-MCO, RIC-MCO, and MKE-SEA seasonal nonstop service

A press release listing these changes can be found at https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule.

https://www.swamedia.com/releases/relea ... t-schedule

SWADawg wrote:

Not really since not much was added.

And this is why there are no longer threads made weeks in advance of the extension for pure wild speculation

Midwestindy wrote:

https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule

SWADawg wrote:

Not really since not much was added.

And this is why there are no longer threads made weeks in advance of the extension for pure wild speculation

A lot of the fleet grown for this schedule extension and through the summer is being held for Hawaii. Once they release their Hawaii flights, these releases will be interesting again as they mature that market.

It's interesting they're adding the seasonal DAL-CRP flight.

Also, the seasonal DSM-PHX flight is beginning 3 months earlier that last year. I think it's only a matter of time before they make this flight permanent. It went daily in November - December last year.

Midwestindy wrote:

https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule

SWADawg wrote:

Not really since not much was added.

And this is why there are no longer threads made weeks in advance of the extension for pure wild speculation

I've thought it might just save everybody a bunch of time to simply post links back to previous threads which have the same weary speculative posts over and over and over.

Of course I could just not read those threads...fool that I am...but just not having them at all until the new schedule comes out is a good solution IMHO.

jplatts wrote:

Here are the following adds that were made by WN in today's schedule extension:

• Saturday-only DAL-CRP nonstop service
• Weekend-only RIC-TPA nonstop service
• Return of BDL-FLL, BUF-FLL, BOI-MDW, EWR-MCO, RIC-MCO, and MKE-SEA seasonal nonstop service

A press release listing these changes can be found at https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule.

To the Southwest historians, have they ever flown DAL-CRP nonstop? I like that some of the small Texas stations have been gaining new destinations lately.

Congrats to CRP for the add even if it’s minor.

I think this might be WN’s most bland schedule extension ever.

jplatts wrote:

Here are the following adds that were made by WN in today's schedule extension:

• Saturday-only DAL-CRP nonstop service
• Weekend-only RIC-TPA nonstop service
• Return of BDL-FLL, BUF-FLL, BOI-MDW, EWR-MCO, RIC-MCO, and MKE-SEA seasonal nonstop service

A press release listing these changes can be found at https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule.

DAL-CRP I feel has been flown in the past on and off but any addition in CRP calls for a parade
RIC-TPA and RIC-MCO are good adds!
BDL-FLL and BUF-FLL (I was hoping for EWR-FLL) come back after the summer runway work
BOI-MDW has been a summer seasonal, good to see it go a little later this year
MKE-SEA I don't know much about but seems like a solid return.

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

Flame on..

RJNUT wrote:

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

Flame on..

FAT—a huge missed opportunity

Lame how all the new/returns are all just Sat or Sat Sun only. Certainly not much IMO.
As for BOI-MDW, this seems odd since they aren't flying it this summer until then . And it will just replace the Sat only BOI-DAL flight. But I guess anything is better than a reduction.

RJNUT wrote:

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

Flame on..

It's not like WN has no planes on order lol. They still have B38Ms being delivered and the B37Ms are on the way. Lots of growth opportunities still there.

Once Hawaii is up and running, I think we'll see WN start to grow again within the mainland.

mtnwest1979 wrote:

Lame how all the new/returns are all just Sat or Sat Sun only. Certainly not much IMO.
As for BOI-MDW, this seems odd since they aren't flying it this summer until then . And it will just replace the Sat only BOI-DAL flight. But I guess anything is better than a reduction.

As much as I like WN, this (and their repeated snubbing of Oklahoma by not giving us a theme plane) is my biggest sticking point with them...they introduce new service, but make it Sat/Sun only. Basically, it looks like a lame-ass attempt to say to the airport folks "well, we tried, but it didn't work." They've done that to OKC a few times with MCO n/s service and pulled the plug shortly after "launch," but yet F9 somehow makes the route work just fine...and they're doing it to us again with BNA service.

RJNUT wrote:

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

There are still plenty of growth opportunities remaining at some of the existing WN stations in the contiguous U.S., and there are also still plenty of new nonstop routes between existing WN destinations in the contiguous U.S. that can still be added by WN.

Seems to be a little thinning of frequencies and gauges. Frequencies at BWI are down a bit and there are -700s in places where -800s have been. Both may be due to saving a number of -800s to do the Hawaii flights.

This schedule wasn't real kind to PVD. No return of FLL like other cities are seeing. Flights to MCO and TPA are also very thin, maybe a result of the ULCCs? I also don't remember seeing BWI frequencies being at x6 for slightly off peak x6 BWI, x3 MDW, x2 DCA, MCO, x1 TPA. .

I don't see much change at MHT, but WN leaves Florida service at very thin levels which could encourage ULCC entry. MHT to: x6 BWI, x3 MDW, x1 MCO, TPA.
BOS has X9 BWI, x5 MDW, x4 STL x3 BNA, DEN, x1 AUS, ATL, CMH, DAL, HOU, MKE.
BWI regional services x9 BOS, x6 ALB, BUF, MHT, PVD, RDU, x5 BDL, ISP, ORF, x4 PWM, x3 PIT, ROC

MCI-LGA schedule changes in September. One early AM departure and one late PM departure. They've made some huge improvements to their flight times between New York and Kansas City compared to a year ago. I know, part of it is slots, but once they got more they just continued to make it better and better.

RJNUT wrote:

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

Flame on..

As others have said, I think Hawaii is taking up a lot of the slack this year. Plus, there is growth in this schedule, but it can be hard to see.

For example, last year in the mid-August-September schedule, WN flew PNS-DAL as Saturday only. This year, with this extension, PNS-DAL will be flown daily in Mid-August-September.

That's growth (year over year), but you don't really notice it with the schedule extensions.

LotsaRunway wrote:

BOS has X9 BWI, x5 MDW, x4 STL x3 BNA, DEN, x1 AUS, ATL, CMH, DAL, HOU, MKE

In addition to the routes mentioned, WN also has 1 daily nonstop to MCI from BOS.

SANFan wrote:

Let's remember folks that this is the late summer-early fall schedule - August 6 thru Sept 30. The peak summer travel season is over; this is the beginning of the seasonal wind-down. I personally would have been very surprised to see anything major added; no surprise to me.

What I will do when I have a chance is see how many daily flights have been cut at SAN; I just hope there aren't too many frequency or even route reductions from the peak schedule of 130 flights for June & July.

bb

I agree completely. People always treated the schedule extensions like there was going to be massive growth and all sorts of new routes announced, even thought it's the September schedule. And then you'd have people spreading rumors from "reliable sources" or people picking random cities on the route map and listing every possible city that could be added. None of which ended up panning out and killed these threads.

As for this release, it's the tail end of the summer travel season so anything that would have been added for the summer has already been added, and it's getting into September which is typically a slow month. Also, WN is keeping slack in the fleet for the Hawaii flying which should be underway by then, and they're going to begin retiring 73Gs by the end of this year.

Like I said earlier, as soon as they finally begin Hawaii ops, these extensions will be interesting again.

what has become of the daily OAK <-> MCO bi-directional non stops?

Amchi757300 wrote:

what has become of the daily OAK <-> MCO bi-directional non stops?

They're still around. I'm booked on one.

However minor, at least they're showing RIC some LUV. Finally. Still no MDW, STL or BNA which seem like no-brainers to me.

OzarkD9S wrote:

However minor, at least they're showing RIC some LUV. Finally. Still no MDW, STL or BNA which seem like no-brainers to me.

Was about to say the same thing. Was hoping for more often service than just weekend service for TPA but something is better than nothing. Saturdays will be pretty cool now with a whoping 4 WN flights a day! XD 1 each to MCO and TPA and the usual 2x daily flights to ATL on weekends. There is plenty of expansion possible in RIC. 2018 saw the 6th consecutive year of passenger growth surpassing 4 million passengers for the first time ever! Also every month of 2018 set a new passenger record over previous years. Once concourse A expansion is done hopefully that brings in not just added frequencies but new airlines. Would love for F9 to jump in on the DEN route if WN doesn't do it first and give UA a run for its money.

https://www.richmond.com/business/local ... QSCqSdoAj4

LotsaRunway wrote:

Seems to be a little thinning of frequencies and gauges. Frequencies at BWI are down a bit and there are -700s in places where -800s have been. Both may be due to saving a number of -800s to do the Hawaii flights.

This schedule wasn't real kind to PVD. No return of FLL like other cities are seeing. Flights to MCO and TPA are also very thin, maybe a result of the ULCCs? I also don't remember seeing BWI frequencies being at x6 for slightly off peak x6 BWI, x3 MDW, x2 DCA, MCO, x1 TPA. .

I don't see much change at MHT, but WN leaves Florida service at very thin levels which could encourage ULCC entry. MHT to: x6 BWI, x3 MDW, x1 MCO, TPA.

This is the Aug/Sep extension. September is slow in Florida. It's the lowest month of the year for enplanements at MCO. Sept. is a dumb time to add capacity to FL.

fraspotter wrote:

Was about to say the same thing. Was hoping for more often service than just weekend service for TPA but something is better than nothing. Saturdays will be pretty cool now with a whoping 4 WN flights a day! XD 1 each to MCO and TPA and the usual 2x daily flights to ATL on weekends. There is plenty of expansion possible in RIC. 2018 saw the 6th consecutive year of passenger growth surpassing 4 million passengers for the first time ever! Also every month of 2018 set a new passenger record over previous years. Once concourse A expansion is done hopefully that brings in not just added frequencies but new airlines. Would love for F9 to jump in on the DEN route if WN doesn't do it first and give UA a run for its money.

I had good friends in RIC before they moved back to STL and I really miss AirTran. Great fares, good service, cheap upgrades etc... I even flew STL-MCO-RIC once just to change things up a bit. Some people say WN is running out of US expansion options but they have so many stations that could be tweaked/expanded upon. I think RIC is one of those stations.

TTraider95 wrote:

jplatts wrote:

Here are the following adds that were made by WN in today's schedule extension:

• Saturday-only DAL-CRP nonstop service
• Weekend-only RIC-TPA nonstop service
• Return of BDL-FLL, BUF-FLL, BOI-MDW, EWR-MCO, RIC-MCO, and MKE-SEA seasonal nonstop service

A press release listing these changes can be found at https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-bc94d941a090ea44998912da1f124964-southwest-airlines-extends-published-flight-schedule.

To the Southwest historians, have they ever flown DAL-CRP nonstop? I like that some of the small Texas stations have been gaining new destinations lately.

Years ago. Weekends only.

Only change STL really had besides added frequency carry overs from summer was PNS stays longer. Ended in July last year.

n471wn wrote:

RJNUT wrote:

are we reaching peak WN? other than Hawaii, where are the growth opportunities going to come from. ?

Flame on..

FAT—a huge missed opportunity

I can’t help but think that WN has taken notice of FAT’s huge growth numbers. There is certainly a lot of opportunity to poach pax and add new growth on LAS and PHX, and perhaps SAN and DEN. With traffic and parking costs in the Bay and SoCal, they would certainly draw from BFL-MCE-SBP and everything in between.

EvanWSFO wrote:

TTraider95 wrote:

To the Southwest historians, have they ever flown DAL-CRP nonstop? I like that some of the small Texas stations have been gaining new destinations lately.

Years ago. Weekends only.

Correct. I only have a couple of pre-deregulation (intrastate) WN timetables, but my 11/1/77 timetable does show CRP-DAL nonstop on Sat/Sun. They also flew CRP-AUS every day at that time.