Southwest Airlines pending government approval has purchased AirTran. If and when this deal goes through it will eventually led to new options for flights to the Caribbean. AirTran presently has routes to Aruba; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Montego Bay, Jamaica; (yea), San Juan, P.R.; Cozumel and Cancun, MX; and Nassau, Bahamas. Presumably Southwest will continue those routes as a part of it's commitment to "near" international service. It is also expected that flights to these destinations will add Houston Hobby and Dallas Love Fields to its airports from which these destinations can now be reached either directly or through connecting flights from Atlanta, Orlando and Baltimore.
But not only is it good news because of route access, it is good news because it is an established fact of the industry that when Southwest goes head-to-head with legacy airlines such as American, Continental and Delta airfare go down across the board.
Oh yea, another great thing about the merger is that Southwest has already committed to keeping its "Bags Fly Free" policy and is extending it to all the routes obtained in the AirTran system. They will also be converting all former AirTran flights to "open seating." Existing Boing 717's in the AirTran fleet will be converted to facilitate the open seating concept.
From where I see things this may be one of the happier announcements from any airline. You can be sure that given a choice this cowboy will be flying Southwest Airlines! Way to go Southwest!
But not only is it good news because of route access, it is good news because it is an established fact of the industry that when Southwest goes head-to-head with legacy airlines such as American, Continental and Delta airfare go down across the board.
Oh yea, another great thing about the merger is that Southwest has already committed to keeping its "Bags Fly Free" policy and is extending it to all the routes obtained in the AirTran system. They will also be converting all former AirTran flights to "open seating." Existing Boing 717's in the AirTran fleet will be converted to facilitate the open seating concept.
From where I see things this may be one of the happier announcements from any airline. You can be sure that given a choice this cowboy will be flying Southwest Airlines! Way to go Southwest!
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