We were intrigued when Southwest announced it will be testing inflight internet access hopefully this summer on four aircraft. The service, in partnership with Row 44 will give its passengers full access to Internet including e-mail, music, shopping, and work through a virtual private network(VPN).
But why is Southwest doing this? Their press release on the hookup indicates why. The VPN notation. Business people use VPNs to log into their company’s network over a public connection and work as if they were in the office. Southwest has made it clear they are trying to increase their competitiveness in the business market.
The new boarding process and new fare platform they introduced were designed to get business class passengers on the planes first, then families…to the outrage of families. Their blog suggests that everyone liked not having to stake out a place in line and people paid to upgrade after receiving a class C pass. We haven’t flown Southwest since the changes, but we have canvassed a bit amongst people who have.
Their blog also laments the near-loss of the signature Southwest stir stick topped with a heart. We have to admit, Southwest going far afield from its signature service is sad enough without removing those trappings that make the airline unique.
Southwest has boosted a major presence in Denver, which it returned to two years ago and this summer will offer 79 daily departures out of the airport. Southwest, also effective this summer, increased or began nonstop service in 31 markets, while reducing it in 51 markets, and some of these changes will be seasonal. We applaud Southwest for adapting itself to changing demand. We were impressed when in November they announced a Saturday schedule plan. Instead of the Saturday schedule being the same as every other day(With maybe a few flights removed), they have optimized it based on different traffic patterns, and adding new Saturday-only nonstop markets…ie Orlando to Omaha. We hope, as they do, that they look at optimizing the schedule in more and more details. We understand the idea of flights that don’t operate daily, but we applaud an effort to look at things every which way to not only increase service, but to look at it every which way to make it the best.
If you are interested in the Denver increases, the Cranky Flier has a nice table, available here, which compares their flying to the levels of Frontier and United to the same destinations. He theorizes Southwest is ‘going for the jugular’ of Frontier Airlines. And they could very well cripple the carrier, which already competes with United for Denver market share.
Effective on January 29th, Southwest will be revising its baggage policy. The Cranky Flier, expert at graphs and graphics(we love him for that), supplied the following image summarizing the change. Southwest is eliminating the free third bag, bringing them in line with most carriers at a two complimentary checked bag policy. Southwest, despite the changes, remains the cheapest airline to take your entire life on the plane with.
Maybe Southwest is doing the right thing. They announced today that quarterly profit nearly doubled on big gains for their fuel hedges. Their earnings, however, fell 13 percent to $87 million. They are changing, but they are still growing, if in different ways. The in-flight internet, as well as its Business Select service, are part of its efforts to find new ways to boost revenue. We’ll keep watching.