Southwest to Compete on Atlanta – Los Angeles

Posted 16/01/2012

US low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines has confirmed it will inaugurate a daily service between Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport from June 10, 2012, a route that is already flown by its sister carrier AirTran Airways on a three times daily basis.  The route is popular with both business and leisure travellers and is also served by Delta Air Lines.

An estimated 834,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, up 5.5 per cent on the previous 12 month period.  Delta Air Lines dominates the market with a 68 per cent share of the traffic, thanks in part to the use of widebodied equipment on its 60 plus flights a week.  There is a major price difference between the two operators on the route too with AirTran’s average one-way fares around 60 per cent cheaper than its rival.

Southwest Airlines will launch its first flights to the Atlanta market next month when it inaugurates 15 daily flights to five destinations - Baltimore/Washington, Chicago Midway, Denver, Houston Hobby, and Austin, Texas from February 12, 2012.  It will also add daily links to Las Vegas and Phoenix from March 10, 2012.  AirTran Airways already serves 52 cities from Atlanta including international routes to Mexico and the Caribbean.

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PLEASE NOTE: From March 7, 2012 schedule data for all news stories has been extracted from OAG Schedules iNET; All GDS data is based on a live GDS update on the day of publication; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending December 2011.  All information is subject to change.