Comments on: Southwest May Push Competing Fares Lower at Existing Airport

By: Tony Viejo

Tony Viejo — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:09:10 +0000

Competition is great for business – strong competition is a blessing.

By: Ted Newkirk

Ted Newkirk — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:37:23 +0000

Southwest wasn’t able to serve Panama City previously because of the runway length of the present airport.

Yes… you can land/takeoff the 737’s they fly at the present airport. But they are weight restricted meaning that they couldn’t operate with the full planes SWA needs with their fare model. If you are charging cheaper fares, you need more seats full to make money. Also, SWA does not charge for baggage, making the weight of their planes (seats full, baggage full) on the allowable but heavy side.

Heavier planes need more runway to take off and land. Flying into normal airports with longer runways, this does not pose an issue.

Remember a few years ago when the SWA airplane over-ran the end of the runway in Burbank and ended up parked at a gas station across the street from the airport?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1455

That runway was only 500 feet shorter than PFN, except a plane landing at PFN on runway 32 has no street to end up on. The plane would end up in the bay. (Also, Burbank has a longer runway — 500 feet longer than PFN — for the departure of heavier aircraft).

To those who say that Delta has been loyal: Yes… loyally overcharging you by about 200% to fly in and out of PFN. From many parts of the U.S. you can fly to Belize or Hawaii for the same amount of money Delta wants serving PFN. This despite that fact that they farm out service to ASA (with much lower paid pilots and staff… saving them money). Food for thought.

By: Luke Pool Service, Inc

Luke Pool Service, Inc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:19:47 +0000

I live in Atlanta. SW was going to come here, but they didn’t. They lost out. So to fly them I have to drive 3 hours to BHM. I ain’t doing that! I will fly Delta. They give me a seat when I book, so I know where I sit. I love them!

Now maybe Airtran will fly there and compete. Then I would fly Airtran!

By: Monica

Monica — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:09:07 +0000

My understanding with the St. Joe, SW strategic alliance was that they would guarantee that SW would “break even” and not show losses for 2 years. There is a big difference between providing assurance of a company reaching “break even point” vs paying them additional $. Therefore, they are not providing additional revenue to the company in order to assist them in offering lower fares. Delta is not loyal. I do not consider overcharging residents for fares just because you have a monopoly and you can, loyalty.

By: Susie

Susie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:18:31 +0000

St. Joe didn’t offer to help out the current airlines who serve us because they didn’t have anything to gain from it. They want to sell their land around the new airport, so NOW that it is going to be beneficial for them they will step up to the plate. When they get the deals on their land in the next two years they will pull back the incentive and people who buy thinking they have a low cost carrier might be left sitting high and dry!!! There’ll be lots of advertising of the land that will use the airport and low cost carrier as an incentive to buy here, but will there be anything in the advertising that warns these buyers that the low cost carrier could very well disappear in 2 years? I don’t think so, do you? Oh, well, just another case of “Let the buyer beware!”

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:35:44 +0000

Great article on the “Southwest Effect”. If you can’t click on it, just copy the following URL to the Address bar of your internet explorer.

http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/articles/southwest-airlines-25-dollar-sale?ncid=AOLCOMMtravdynlprim0652&icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.aol.com%2Ftravel-ideas%2Farticles%2Fsouthwest-airlines-25-dollar-sale%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMtravdynlprim0652

I agree completely with Jason that you should give Southwest your business even if Delta happens to be a couple of dollars cheaper. Delta is sure to lower its prices for the next couple of years since they know the Southwest deal is being subsidised by St. Joe for a couple of years.

Before you buy your next Delta ticket later this year or next year, remember what you paid for your last Delta ticket. Based on how much $$$ you saved due to the “Southwest Effect”, you can easily justify buying the Southwest ticket even if it happens to be a couple dollars more.

By: Axel

Axel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:48:12 +0000

I’m a platinum on delta. If they are close to their competitors’ price I will likely continue to fly them just to keep earning points. However, I normally fly out of Montgomery and ALWAYS have to fly through Atlanta…I thought ASA stood for Always Stuck in Atlanta. It’s great that SWA will bring competition and travel options. I do think it fair and wise for St Joe to provide a short term incentive to help SWA intiatiate service especially in the current economy. Both airlines will help PCB but each will do their business analysis to set fares. Were they have a sole geographic presence they’ll charge more. Where they compete head to head, they’ll lower prices. It’s just business…and the consumer will likely buy the cheapest ticket…as we always do.

By: PS

PS — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:01:13 +0000

Maybe if St.Joe & the TDC had offered some compensation to Delta to offset their costs we would have had cheaper fares a long time ago. They are not the good guys, they are the only guys that wanted to serve PC!

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:57:10 +0000

I’ll be flying SW. I don’t understand why some people want to make Delta look like heroes for serving this market when no one else would. They found a highly profitable niche and took advantage of it by overpricing their flights. Now that there’s competition, they have to charge fair prices. Tell me again how this makes Delta the good guys?

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:26:05 +0000

So glad Southwest is coming to our area. Delta needs competition. They have been charging whatever they want to for years. Also, the fuel prices have come down and they are still charging for baggage. I fly with my family several times a year and when you are paying for bags on top of the fare for 4 passengers, it adds up. I am glad Delta has to start competing in our marketplace. You can actually hire a private plane at the Panama City airport, and fly as cheap as getting on Delta and going by their schedule. Look at what the airfare is to ATL out of Pensacola as opposed to Panama City. That is because Air Tran is competing with Delta. It is just what we needed!!!!!