Proud of their latest destination portfolio addition, Southwest Airlines included Panama City as one of their top stories in their first edition In A Nutshell email newsletter. “Grab your beach ball, it’s on!” the first sentence says. Other announcements in the newsletter include a Bags Fly Free Video Contest and an introduction to their “Green Plane”.
Thought this was cool as there’s no telling how many people saw this. My dad sent it to me, and he’s in Dallas, TX.
Tuesday the Airport Authority met and again discussed the new name for the new airport that is currently under construction in North Bay County. The Board met a few weeks back and decided upon the name Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport, much to the dismay of local tourism industry leaders and government officials. The justification of the previously picked new name by the board consisted of wanting to give Panama City credit for nurturing the new airport project along and ensure travelers to our area knew and understood that they were coming to Panama City.
But, I think that being sure that people know they are coming to Panama City is contradictory to the mission as a whole here.
It was made quite clear by Bob Montgomery, Vice President of Properties for Southwest Airlines, that if it weren’t for St. Joe, Southwest Airlines wouldn’t be coming to Panama City. The discussions between St. Joe and Southwest Airlines began over a decade ago. One of the things that was explained to me a short while ago was that Southwest Airlines can go where ever they want to go; they just pick an airport, and the airport accommodates. I was told that Southwest coming to Panama City made absolutely no sense from a business perspective and the prospect encompassed more risk than a company like Southwest would be willing to take. But, what if the risk was mitigated by a third party? That was their ticket into our market.
Read on for all the facts.
Continue reading “Details of Southwest Airlines and St. Joe "Partnership"”
In an article in the Pensacola News Journal, writer Carlton Proctor is open with his resentment towards Southwest Airlines in an unrealistic bash on the popular airline. Southwest Airlines recently chose the New Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport as their newest addition to an already vast portfolio of service areas. Proctor uses casual banter and poorly researched and inaccurate facts to make an argument that is neither relevant nor credible.
Read on to see how I break down his “paper.”
Continue reading “Pensacola Paper Shows Bitterness towards Southwest”
I want to start this out with stating that this is complete rumor-mill at this point; but we’ll have dialogue below that assumes this is true. With that said, I received an email citing an unnamed source had informed him that in order to maintain and build market share, Delta/Northwest will begin lowering fares in November to build a better market base before Southwest begins service in May. Also, there is a good possibility that when the new airport opens, Delta/Northwest may bring in larger aircraft to serve our marketplace.
Hit the read more link to get the scoop.
Continue reading “Southwest May Push Competing Fares Lower at Existing Airport”
Man, we’re getting so close to landing Canyon Blue planes in Panama City. Every time I see new aerials I’m thoroughly impressed with how far along the new Northwest Florida International Airport (actually, formally named Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport) is. Lets get right down to it!
Continue reading “NEW Airport Construction Aerials Show Airport Almost Complete!”
Ladies and Gents, it’s official: Southwest Airlines has been named the low cost carrier for the Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport. The announcement came early this afternoon at a meeting up at the new airport site. Most in attendance speculated as to what was happening, but very few actually knew with a surety that at the end of the meeting Southwest Airlines would be Northwest Florida’s new partner in our future economic development.
Continue reading “Southwest Airlines is Coming to Panama City Beach”
Edited: Southwest airlines is coming to the new panama city airport, 4 destinations at first with 2 flights a day to each, nonstop.
More later.
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I’m at the new airport site and all the buzz is that southwest is here to make a huge announcement.
Monday was Walton County Day and the Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport hosted the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce board meeting under a tent with the new terminal as the backdrop. Of course, one of the cool things about events like this is that we usually get a pretty good update on how the construction is coming along at the new airport site.
Continue reading “UPDATE: New Airport On Time and On Budget”
A few weeks back a new name was chosen for the new airport: Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport. And while this name in particular certainly did not excite the imagination of many local officials, locals AND readers of PCBDaily.com there was another immensely popular name that failed to make it through the selection process. The naming of our new airport Emerald Coast International seemed to fall victim to legal issues and infringed trademark laws and branding efforts long underway by others in the area, around the country, and around the world.
Continue reading “Why we can't use Emerald Coast International for the New Airport Name”
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