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Southwest Still Jonesing To Get Their Hands On Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport

August 25, 2009 at 9:14 AM | by | Comments (0)

As a result of losing the bid on Frontier to Republic Airways, Southwest Airlines has also lost its hopes of entering the Atlanta market by taking over Frontier's Hartsfield gates. Perhaps they haven't lost all hope yet, as industry watchers are convinced that the world's largest low-cost carrier isn't done with the world's busiest airport quite yet.

Southwest originally upended the airline industry by ignoring the traditional hub-and-spoke model, focusing instead on underexploited "point-to-point" routes. Recently the airline has seemed intent on challenging legacy carriers on their own turf, entering markets outside its traditional southwest and northeast strongholds. Having invaded other big markets, it now may have its eyes fixed on the mega-delicious Hartsfield. Says the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Atlanta and Charlotte are glaring deficiencies in Southwest’s route map, said airline consultant Darryl Jenkins. 'So I think all of us have assumed for a long time that sooner or later they’d do something to get a presence there.'... [KKC Aviation Consulting partner Stuart] Klaskin raised the possibility that Southwest may yet try to enter the Atlanta market through acquisition—naming AirTran as a potential target... At some point, Klaskin said, Southwest will have “sort of ticked off all the low-hanging fruit.' He predicted that, 'by process of elimination,' Southwest could enter Atlanta in the 'relatively near future.'

In the olden days, Atlanta used to be dominated by Delta, which was less than eager to let other players into the market. Then AirTran entered the market and began driving down prices. If Southwest now follows on its own, it would almost certainly trigger the same kind of LCC turf war and pricing freefall we've seen elsewhere.

If you need us, we'll be out back polishing up on Jaunted's Atlanta Travel Guide.

Related Stories:
· Southwest’s chances for Atlanta came close [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
· Airport News [Jaunted]
· Atlanta Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Nikon / Wiki Commons]

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