DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Southwest Airlines will stop operating at Dayton International Airport come early June and will be going to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.
The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon that Southwest will be operating out Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.
The company said in a statement, “Decisions to leave a city are never easy as we constantly strive to utilize our People and Planes to serve markets aligning with long-term business plans. Our main focus now is on impacted Employees who we’re assisting to find other positions within Southwest.”
It will officially cease operation on June 3rd, the end of their current flight schedule.
The City of Dayton released a statement regarding the decision Wednesday.
It said, “City of Dayton leadership was informed by Southwest Airlines that despite its success in the Dayton market with passenger load factors in the high seventy and low eighty percent range, the airline has decided to leave the market in June 2017.
Southwest’s announcement signals a growing trend in the airline industry of concentrating service in larger hub markets.
“Unfortunately the trend has meant smaller to medium-size markets including Dayton have been losing routes,” said Terrence Slaybaugh, Dayton’s Director of Aviation.
“Although we hate to lose any airline service, especially one that the community has been very supportive of, we realize the volatility of the industry and the current trend of airlines to focus on hubs.”
Southwest has been flying out of Dayton since 2012. Last year, the airline made a change in service by limiting their flights to Chicago only. They had three flights a day out of Dayton.
The city says this move will not affect the number of flights with non-stop service from Dayton to Chicago because American and United have several to O’Hare every day.
Story and video: http://wdtn.com
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