Southwest Airlines denies that expansion plans at Baltimore-Washington are in response to US Airways' new low-cost airline. But Southwest is certainly making it difficult for a competitor to get a toe-in.
Southwest currently has six gates at Baltimore airport, and Maryland authorities have granted tentative authority to lease ten more gates over the next five years. If that happens, Southwest's 50 daily departures from Baltimore could increase to 160.
'Our mission is only to grow,' says Southwest. 'The more frequencies we can inject into the market, the better for Southwest and for our customers.'
The east coast has become a prime focus for Southwest since it began operations out of Baltimore in September 1993. At least one new city route is expected to be added this year. But the airline insists its expansion plans have nothing to do with competition from MetroJet, the low cost airline being launched by US Airways.
'We don't do knee jerk competitor responses,' says Southwest. 'Everything we do is well planned in advance. We can move very quickly, but we are also cautious.'
Analysts believe that Southwest's expansion plans will seriously challenge MetroJet, which will initially serve just four cities from Baltimore with five Boeing 737-200s. While US Airways has 22 gates at Baltimore, it has not said how many will be allocated to MetroJet.
But its real challenge will be to get MetroJet's costs down to those of Southwest. Analysts point to United's low-cost subsidiary, Shuttle by United, which twice tried to challenge Southwest in Oakland, California, and twice failed.
Source: Airline Business
