The Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog is reporting Southwest’s new announced NYC-La Guardia Airport Schedule.   As expected, there are no real surprises as to where they are flying and how often.  The only surprise is that they figured out how to add an eight slot pair to the seven they purchased for $7.5 million.

Simple.  They scheduled a flight *before* daily slot controls come into effect and one flight *after* daily slot controls end each day.  Southwest is already crowing that they are beginning to figure out how to game the system.  I wouldn’t necessarily pat myself on the back yet if I were them.

Where are they flying?  Chicago and Baltimore just as every person expected.  Both cities present opportunities for traffic originating in those cities as well as connecting traffic from still more cities.  However, Dallas does not find itself in a convenient position for traveling to La Guardia.  Under the present Wright Amendment rules, it will take 2 stops to get to New York City.  First, you have to fly from Dallas to a Wright Amendment destination (one of the contiguous states next to Texas or one of the legislated destinations such as Kansas City) and then from one of those cities, you’ll have to travel to Chicago or Baltimore where you will connect again to go onwards to New York City.

I don’t expect a lot of traffic originating from Dallas to NYC.  Not until the Wright Amendment expires and allows Southwest to operate like any other carrier in the United States. 

Filed under: Airline News by ajax