This story strongly suggests Southwest Airlines is gearing up to go global. Okay, maybe not global, but certainly international. A couple of kind FrontBurnervians passed along the link, and one of them has a Hot Sports Opinion about Southwest’s strategy:
I sometimes wonder if the fight over Love Field is a subtle maneuver by Southwest to prevent AA from keeping its eye on the ball. Bear with me: Southwest just picked up 79 options on 737’s through 2012, which means that it now has 140 aircraft on order and options on another 116. Southwest is still expanding domestic capacity, including flights from United’s fortress hub at Denver International Airport, and is planning to begin ops from Washington Dulles, another United hub. Meanwhile, American is shrinking its domestic flight schedule by 4% this year.
So, if Southwest is willing to take on United at its major hubs, why not American at DFW? Seems like Southwest is working some kind of brilliant strategery here. Makes AA’s free flight giveaway the other night at the Mavs game look kinda chumpy by comparison.
