Southwest Airlines in May will reconfigure its route structure, eliminating 57 roundtrip flights while adding 40 roundtrips to what it deems growth markets, including Denver. CEO Gary Kelly said Southwest is eliminating frequencies, not citypairs, and redeploying aircraft to meet demand in other markets. Such cities as Chicago and Phoenix will lose some frequencies, while Denver and Austin, among others, will pick up new routes. "The bottom line on overall capacity is sort of a net zero," Kelly said in a BTN interview this month. "We had previously projected that we would be growing our available seat miles by about 4 percent to 5 percent, and that remains true." Kelly added that Southwest also will grow its fleet at a more modest pace, expecting to add between five and 10 additional aircraft in 2008. "The fact that we are adding fewer aircraft to the fleet this year makes it easier for us to go in and do a pretty thorough pruning of our flight schedule," Kelly told BTN. "That does create available aircraft time. At least as we're growing slower, we have ample opportunities to redeploy that aircraft. Obviously, Denver was the big beneficiary of that." Southwest in the past year has aired concerns over an economic slowdown that is expected to drag on domestic air travel demand, and last year trimmed its growth rate. Still, the carrier is one of the few in growth mode domestically, as many legacy carriers are adding service abroad and trimming capacity within the United States
(BTN, Sept. 24, 2007).U.K. Ups Carry-On Baggage AllowanceThe U.K. Department for Transport this month amended its maligned policy that allowed passengers to bring only one carry-on item through airport security checkpoints in the United Kingdom. Most large U.K. airports, including Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have adopted the amended policy, which allows one carry-on bag and one personal item through security. London's Gatwick Airport is expected to adopt the standard in March. Several carriers, including British Airways and American Airlines, cheered the change, which is consistent with baggage allowances in the United States.
Eos Files To Bolster Domestic Charter BusinessAll-premium-class transatlantic carrier Eos Airlines last month filed a request with the U.S. Department of Transportation to gain a domestic United States operating certificate. However, Eos founder and chief of strategy Dave Spurlock this month said not to expect Eos to launch scheduled transcon service anytime soon. Rather, he said, "As a course of business, we're going to gather every route right, both for scheduled business and charter operations." Spurlock said that in addition to the carrier's scheduled New York-London service, it operates its 48-seat premium class aircraft on a charter basis. "You'd be shocked to know how successful we run a little cottage charter business with tremendous demand for taking this airplane," he said. "We've pretty much flown it all over the world."