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Economy on the High Plains
Southwest to drop AMA-ABQ in March
AMARILLO, TEXAS
(hppr) -
(sound of milling passengers)
Mark Haslett: The holiday travel season is over, but at Amarillo's Rick Husband International Airport, the Southwest Airlines ticket counter remains busy. Three carriers serve Amarillo: American Eagle, which flies to Dallas-Fort Worth, Continental Express, with service to Houston and Southwest. Currently, Southwest connects Amarillo to Dallas Love Field; Denver; Las Vegas, Nevada and Albuquerque. However, Southwest will discontinue its Amarillo-Albuquerque route in early March. Olga Romero is a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines.
Olga Romero: Well, first of all, this isn't about Amarillo, this is about nationwide service. So, we're constantly looking at our schedules to see where we can cut unproductive flights to add new flights in our markets where customers are showing high demand. And that's why the Albuquerque-Amarillo flight got re-routed. But you can still fly to Albuquerque through Dallas Love Field.
Haslett: Romero says that Southwest reviews its route map quarterly and also makes changes to its schedules quarterly. When asked if the services from Amarillo to Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas were secure, Romero said yes.
Romero: Those are secure. The only one that's going to be changed- it's going to be for May- we're cutting one more flight from Amarillo to Dallas Love Field. But still, Amarillo's going to have seven direct flights every day.
Haslett: So Albuquerque service ends March 8th and the number of daily Southwest flights to Love Field will drop from eight to seven in May. That number matches the total of American Eagle flights from Amarillo to the DFW airport. American Airlines spokesperson Tim Wagner says that American's service to Dallas-Fort Worth is, for the moment, stable.
Wagner: Amarillo is good business town for us- you know, the defense industries and the agriculture up there, and its position as a regional center for commerce makes it pretty clear that it's going to have service for some time to come. Now that can change, you know, or vary, I guess, based on economic factors. But for the most part, what you see now fits the demand that we see in that market.
Haslett: When asked if American might try to pick up the Amarillo to Albuquerque route, Wagner said no. There are two basic models for airline route maps. Point-to-point and hub-and-spoke. American, like most major carriers, follows the hub and spoke model.
Wagner: American is a hub-and-spoke carrier, so the service you're going to see from us id going to be to our hub, because the number of passenger who want to go directly from Amarillo to Oklahoma City or directly to Albuquerque aren't enough for us to operate daily or multiple-times-a-day service. But the four or five passengers who get on a flight to DFW that are going on to Oklahoma City or are going on to Albuquerque, that is what builds up the number of passengers, so I don't think you'll see American Airlines or American Eagle adding what we would call point-to-point service any time in the future.
Haslett: In contrast, Southwest does provide point-to-point service. The airline developed that model partially out of necessity. The Wright Amendment, a 1979 federal law, limited Southwest's ability to fly nonstop from Love Field to destinations outside the immediate region. So, might the Amarillo to Albuquerque service return? Possibly- but only as a result of quantifiable consumer demand.
Romero: If we have a lot of people that fly from, for example, Amarillo-Dallas-San Antonio, Amarillo-Dallas-Austin, we would take that into consideration.
Haslett: So, if air travelers on the high plains are wondering how the economic downturn will affect service from Amarillo to other cities, they should bear this in mind: if the demand for a particular route remains, so will the service. If demand falls, expect airlines to behave like any other business- and cut their losses. This is Mark Haslett, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2010, hppr
(2009-01-06)
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Mark Haslett: The holiday travel season is over, but at Amarillo's Rick Husband International Airport, the Southwest Airlines ticket counter remains busy. Three carriers serve Amarillo: American Eagle, which flies to Dallas-Fort Worth, Continental Express, with service to Houston and Southwest. Currently, Southwest connects Amarillo to Dallas Love Field; Denver; Las Vegas, Nevada and Albuquerque. However, Southwest will discontinue its Amarillo-Albuquerque route in early March. Olga Romero is a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines.
Olga Romero: Well, first of all, this isn't about Amarillo, this is about nationwide service. So, we're constantly looking at our schedules to see where we can cut unproductive flights to add new flights in our markets where customers are showing high demand. And that's why the Albuquerque-Amarillo flight got re-routed. But you can still fly to Albuquerque through Dallas Love Field.
Haslett: Romero says that Southwest reviews its route map quarterly and also makes changes to its schedules quarterly. When asked if the services from Amarillo to Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas were secure, Romero said yes.
Romero: Those are secure. The only one that's going to be changed- it's going to be for May- we're cutting one more flight from Amarillo to Dallas Love Field. But still, Amarillo's going to have seven direct flights every day.
Haslett: So Albuquerque service ends March 8th and the number of daily Southwest flights to Love Field will drop from eight to seven in May. That number matches the total of American Eagle flights from Amarillo to the DFW airport. American Airlines spokesperson Tim Wagner says that American's service to Dallas-Fort Worth is, for the moment, stable.
Wagner: Amarillo is good business town for us- you know, the defense industries and the agriculture up there, and its position as a regional center for commerce makes it pretty clear that it's going to have service for some time to come. Now that can change, you know, or vary, I guess, based on economic factors. But for the most part, what you see now fits the demand that we see in that market.
Haslett: When asked if American might try to pick up the Amarillo to Albuquerque route, Wagner said no. There are two basic models for airline route maps. Point-to-point and hub-and-spoke. American, like most major carriers, follows the hub and spoke model.
Wagner: American is a hub-and-spoke carrier, so the service you're going to see from us id going to be to our hub, because the number of passenger who want to go directly from Amarillo to Oklahoma City or directly to Albuquerque aren't enough for us to operate daily or multiple-times-a-day service. But the four or five passengers who get on a flight to DFW that are going on to Oklahoma City or are going on to Albuquerque, that is what builds up the number of passengers, so I don't think you'll see American Airlines or American Eagle adding what we would call point-to-point service any time in the future.
Haslett: In contrast, Southwest does provide point-to-point service. The airline developed that model partially out of necessity. The Wright Amendment, a 1979 federal law, limited Southwest's ability to fly nonstop from Love Field to destinations outside the immediate region. So, might the Amarillo to Albuquerque service return? Possibly- but only as a result of quantifiable consumer demand.
Romero: If we have a lot of people that fly from, for example, Amarillo-Dallas-San Antonio, Amarillo-Dallas-Austin, we would take that into consideration.
Haslett: So, if air travelers on the high plains are wondering how the economic downturn will affect service from Amarillo to other cities, they should bear this in mind: if the demand for a particular route remains, so will the service. If demand falls, expect airlines to behave like any other business- and cut their losses. This is Mark Haslett, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2010, hppr
