Southwest Airlines to link network with AirTran

(Hat tip to Jim)

Southwest Airlines, which is launching service at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in February, plans to also link its route network with merger partner AirTran Airways early next year, opening up more connecting flight options to and from Atlanta.

Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly acknowledged, though, that some of AirTran’s less-frequent routes and subsidized routes don’t fit into Southwest’s model.

Since closing its acquisition of AirTran in May, Dallas-based Southwest has been working on integrating AirTran into its operations, including AirTran's primary hub in Atlanta.

Kelly said Southwest hopes to begin connecting the two airlines' networks with select itineraries in the first quarter of 2012.

For Atlantans, "it's huge," Kelly said. More cities that Southwest flies to and AirTran does not would be opened up for Atlanta travelers. Those cities include Cleveland; Jackson, Miss.; Nashville; Louisville; Panama City, Fla.; Portland, Ore.; and Salt Lake City.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines already serves many of those cities, but additional Southwest service could increase competition on routes from Atlanta.

Kelly said once AirTran service has been converted over to Southwest after a transition period of a few years, "what you should really expect is what Nashville experienced" when American Airlines closed its Nashville hub and Southwest grew its own point-to-point operation there.

In Atlanta, "We'll have a different set of flight times, flight frequencies, nonstop destinations than what AirTran has," Kelly said.

He noted that "if there are domestic cities with less than daily service, that's just really not what we do." AirTran outsources that work in some smaller cities, making it easier to operate just a few days a week, but Southwest tends to use its own employees for ground operations.

And Kelly is also not fond of operating routes with subsidies from communities, as AirTran does in some markets. "By definition, some of these markets are very, very marginal," Kelly said. "If it's an environment where fuel costs are high, it's really tough to make that work."

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