Using its stature as the fourth-largest metro area in the USA, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) has set a two-year timeframe to add new service to markets topping its wish list - Spain and Asia.
Airport Executive Vice President Joseph Lopano stresses DFW is keen on Spanish growth as the market from the USA to Spain has grown 16% year over year. Opportunities are growing in both Spain and in Asia, he says.
Lopano believes DFW "can achieve one of these markets in the next couple of years" if the economy continues to recover.
Domestically, DFW is celebrating the addition of new service from Los Angeles and San Francisco being introduced by Virgin America in December. Lopano explains that the airport's relationship with the airline dates back seven years, when it lent its support to Virgin America's certification efforts in the USA.
Lopano says Virgin America qualified for and "received a substantial incentive" based on DFW's scalable formula based where a carrier is operating and number of frequencies.
Virgin America is joining most of the USA's low cost carriers in serving DFW with the exception of Spirit Airlines and JetBlue. Spirit briefly operated service from DFW to its Fort Lauderdale hub in 2006. Lopano notes that Spirit is a "different company now" than when it previously served Fort Lauderdale. "They've been consistently profitable. We're hopeful they'll come back."
Source: Flight Daily News
