Southwest Airlines to offer flights at Logan
(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston/Warwick, R.I.) – Finishing touches are underway at Terminal E in Boston’s Logan International Airport as Southwest Airlines prepares to launch service Sunday. But competitors like T.F. Green Airport outside Providence and Manchester Boston Regional Airport, who for more than a decade have counted Southwest service as a key competitive advantage over Logan, aren’t standing still. Thirteen years after Texas-based Southwest first entered New England, through service to T. F. Green, it is finally coming to Boston, initially with five daily round trips each to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Chicago Midway Airport. Fares are as low as $49 one-way, as little as one-fifth the price of many tickets from Boston to the Washington area and one-third what United and American Airlines normally charge for flights to Chicago O’Hare. Travel expert Mona Strick of CheapFlights.com in Boston said she loves what Southwest is doing, especially on the expensive Boston-Washington route. “It’s tremendous for business travelers and for leisure travelers as well to be able to get in at that price point,” Strick said. “Southwest coming into the market will definitely generate some competition in pricing for other carriers here, and who will benefit? The consumer. So we are very excited.” T.F. Green director Kevin Dillon said that “there’s no doubt that we would have preferred to have the monopoly on Southwest service here in southern New England.” But Dillon noted that the airport is responding aggressively to maintain its competitive edge, including with construction — now 40 percent complete — on a new intermodal/car rental facility that will connect to Boston commuter rail service through a 1,200-foot walkway. When it opens in September 2010, Dillon said the location will be served by 8 daily MBTA Boston-Providence commuter-rail trains, and he hopes in time Amtrak may offer service for people who would take a train to connect to a plane at Green. “I think Southwest going in to Logan is a good move for Southwest,” Dillon said. “They have found they have not been able to attract the business traveler from inside Route 128 belt to go down to Providence or up to Manchester, so this is really an effort to go after the business sector,” Dillon said. Dillon said he expects Green easy access and cheaper parking will keep it an attractive alternative to Logan for many travelers in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts or southwestern Boston suburbs. Also, for now, if you want to get away from Boston on Southwest to destinations like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando, or Philadelphia, you’ll still have to go through Manchester or Providence. However, Southwest has enough gate space at Logan’s Terminal E to easily accommodate 30 or 40 daily flights. Strick said she would love to see some of those destinations currently served only from Manchester and Providence become Boston destinations, especially wintertime Florida service and low-priced transcontinental service. Southwest also recently obtained gate space at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and some aviation insiders wonder if Southwest would ever consider launching Logan-LaGuardia service to compete with the $500-plus Delta and US Airways shuttles. Southwest, however, is not making any comment on which destinations it expects to add from Boston, or when.
