Bob Jordan, executive vice president of Southwest Airlines, emphasized that Southwest's expansion at Akron-Canton Airport will not minimize its presence in or commitment to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. "Cleveland has been wonderful to us, and we've been very successful there," he said Monday. "We have no interest in reducing our flight schedule to Cleveland."
View full sizeSouthwest Airlines and AirTran Airways planes, seen here in Atlanta, are both offering nonstop flights from Akron-Canton Airport in Green. Southwest joined AirTran there on Sunday. "Today we celebrate the most important development in the history of our airport," said Richard McQueen, president and chief executive of Akron-Canton Airport.
Southwest Airlines and its subsidiary AirTran Airways make up 55 to 60 percent of the passenger traffic at the airport.
He said his predecessor, the late Frederick Krum, wrote a letter to Southwest's former Chairman and President Herbert Kelleher on Sept. 23, 1987, asking him to consider expanding Southwest to Akron-Canton.
Kelleher wrote back that "for numerous reasons, Akron-Canton is not in our 1988 expansion plans."
McQueen, who wore one of Krum's ties for Monday's festivities, said Krum would have danced with joy to welcome Southwest to Akron-Canton.
Bob Jordan, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Southwest Airlines, flew in for the weekend to oversee the first few flights.
He credited AirTran Airways, which came to Akron-Canton in 1997, with helping to bring Southwest to the region.
He also emphasized that Southwest's expansion at Akron-Canton will not minimize its presence in or commitment to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
"I can assure you that there's no impact on Cleveland," he said. "We've been in Cleveland since 1992. Cleveland has been wonderful to us, and we've been very successful there. We have no interest in reducing our flight schedule to Cleveland."
If United Airlines were to scale back its presence at Hopkins, that could create an opportunity for Southwest to fill that gap, he said.
That's what happened in St. Louis, Mo. When American Airlines cut flights there, Southwest expanded and now flies 84 daily nonstops out of that airport.
Southwest Airlines Co., based in Dallas, currently flies 12 daily nonstops out of Cleveland Hopkins, to Baltimore/Washington, D.C.; Chicago Midway, Las Vegas and Nashville.
On Sunday, Southwest launched three daily nonstops from Akron-Canton: two to Chicago Midway and one to Denver that used to be an AirTran Airways flight.
That's in addition to AirTran's 12 daily nonstops to Atlanta, New York's LaGuardia Airport, Boston, Orlando, and Tampa.
Southwest acquired AirTran Airways in a merger that closed on May 2, 2011.
Southwest, which operates more than 3,400 flights a day, plans to convert the entire AirTran fleet over to the Southwest banner by 2015. AirTran operates nearly 700 flights a day.
Jordan said the company operates simultaneously out of several airports in South Florida as well as in Greater Los Angeles.
"There's plenty of traffic here for both airports," he said of Southwest at Akron-Canton and Cleveland Hopkins.
Jordan, who is also president of AirTran Airways, said the integration is more complicated than simply repainting AirTran planes to Southwest's canyon blue, red, orange, and gold.
Besides ripping out and replacing the interior, seats and carpets, and taking out Business class, Southwest also uses different avionics and instrumentation in the cockpit.
"The conversion of an AirTran 737 to a Southwest 737 takes 42 days," he said.
The two now operate as separate airlines, with side-by-side ticket counters at Akron-Canton Airport and separate websites and reservations systems.
When the two are combined, all passengers will use Southwest's first-come, first-served open-seating policy, and no checked-bag or change fees.
AirTran passengers now pay $20 for the first checked bag, $25 for the second bag, plus another $50 for oversized bags or bags weighing more than 50 pounds. Changing your ticket costs $75.
Southwest, which has been profitable since it launched 39 years ago, doesn't charge bag fees but still makes revenue from early boarding fees and branded credit cards. Last year, according to IdeaWorksCompany, Southwest made $1.18 billion in such ancillary revenue.
By the first quarter of 2013, Jordan said passengers will be able to connect between AirTran and Southwest flights.
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