Interesting comments from Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly about the airline acquisition of AirTran, which has a hub in Atlanta. AirTran, with its currently three-daily flights to Atlanta, two-daily flights to Baltimore and at times daily and at other times weekend-only flights to Orlando, has done more to reduce fares out of Charlotte than any one else.
The highlights: Kelly expects to cut the scope of Atlanta by about 13 percent, or down to some 175 flights a day, mainly by eliminating flights to some smaller destinations. And the money quote:
We’ll unwind the hub and operate a typical Southwest point-to-point schedule. You’d rather have two nonstop passengers than one connecting passenger. AirTran yields a certain revenue per mile flown, and Southwest gets a premium to that.
Which is to say if you expect the Southwest/AirTran merger to produce lower fares across the board here in the CLT, you would be mistaken. The results are likely to be more mixed, and depend heavily upon where you are going. If you connect in ATL on AirTran to go some third-tier destination in the Midwest, you may need to find an alternative routing at higher fares in a year. If you’re going to Baltimore, you’ll undoubtedly pay more. But if you’re flying to Omaha or Austin, where AirTran can’t really get you from Charlotte but after the merger Southwest will be able to, then you might end up paying less.
