We have reported numerous times in recent years that in the opinion of Philadelphia officials, PHL should do just fine were its major airline to merge (again) with another carrier. The airport serves a region of more than six million people, making it attractive to the airlines even if US Airways were to trim its hub operations here in a marriage to United. Traditionally, more than half of the US Airways' passengers at its PHL hub are "O & D," or origin-and-destination, meaning they start or end their trips at the airport rather than just connecting. In smaller cities that are hubs, such as Charlotte, as many as 90 percent of passengers are connecting. Airport director Charlie Isdell spoke in a Q-and-A with my colleague, Linda Loyd this week, reiterating the point.
Knowing that made a New York Times story yesterday ring true. Southwest, the story points out, is in a good position to expand in US Airways' and United's larger hubs were there to be cutbacks in those cities. You may recall that Southwest chairman Herb Kelleher, speaking in Philadelphia in 2004 when US Airways was in bankrputcy, said his airline would be happy to take over 25 gates at the airport were the hub carrier (which uses more than 80 gates) to give them up, Southwest now has eight gates and is about to go to 10, with hopes of getting more in a few years. It's good to see that Southwest could have similar ambitions elsewhere, providing additional competition.
Comments (3)
Are we all assuming that Southwest does not do a deal with another airline???
from 2004,, looked like Southwest would want ALL the gates in Philly>>>
Posted by YHS | May 7, 2008 2:35 PM
Posted on May 7, 2008 14:35
Dulles is horrible. US has to give up significant operations at either DCA OR IAD. Would they be better off transferring more of their hub operations to PHL? If they actually had departure slots and gates, yes. But what's the odds of that working?
Posted by rich | May 7, 2008 9:12 PM
Posted on May 7, 2008 21:12
The only reason Southwest would look at another airline would be to open some international gates. I can't see them, being the only profitable airline, to go and grab a carrier with a losing record. I COULD see them entering into another Code Share agreement like they had with ATA. It would give the other carrier an infusion of cash and passengers.
And would it be so bad if SW had all the gates at PHL?.. It would be nice to have a profitable carrier as our main airline, and have them invest in the facility. Go look at BWI, Providence, or Midway. The facilities look much better than most of our terminals.
Posted by Jim McCloskey | May 13, 2008 6:11 PM
Posted on May 13, 2008 18:11