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Continuing its trend of going into overcrowded, delay prone airports it had previously avoided, Southwest Airlines announced it would be coming to Newark’s Liberty Airport. The effort is part of Continental and United’s effort to secure approval for their merger by agreeing to lease them 36 slots at the airport, which will allow for 18 daily roundtrips.
Southwest could begin service in March, and provide a full schedule by June. This is contingent on the closing of the merger by November 30th. Details on which cities they will serve and when they might begin service have yet to be announced.
“We are excited by the opportunity to initiate service from Newark, New Jersey, and we plan to enable that service starting next March through continued flight schedule optimization using our existing fleet,†said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President of Strategy and Planning. “We’ve seen tremendous demand for Southwest Airlines in the New York City/Newark area in the past year. Customers are clamoring for our unique brand of hospitality, great value, low fares, extensive flight network, and our terrific Employees who deliver outstanding Customer Service. Adding Newark provides an excellent complement to our LaGuardia and Long Island service, giving Customers one more option for travel to and from the greater New York City/New Jersey area. This service also will provide a needed injection of low fares and competition into the New York/Newark market.â€
We believe that people in the tri-state area are eager for more competition. Of course, the popularity of the three major New York area airports leads to something the same people are not eager for…delays caused by congestion. Southwest’s legendary twenty minute turnaround will not help that, alas. But that is not anything Southwest can do anything about. But it is something they’ll have to deal with.
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