Southwest Adding International Flights Via Air Tran

Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) plans to add more international flights through its subsidiary Air Tran next year, according to an executive on Sunday.

Southwest will add flights from Houston airport and Chicago, while Air Tran is supposed to seek government approval for four new nonstop routes to Mexico to expand international service in summer next year. The scheduled routes are Texas, San Antonio, Cancun and Mexico City starting in May 2012 and California, Orange County, to Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas which will start in June 2012.

Bob Jordan, the Southwest Chief commercial officer and president at Air Tran, told reports on a briefing call that this is the first among several announcements to expand international services. However, he refused to comment on other international destinations Southwest was thinking about. Adding on Mr. Jordan said that the carrier will not be operating the new international services if the economic opportunity does not seem promising.

Southwest acquired Air Tran earlier this year in May, obtaining access to United States market previously it did not offer services in countries like Atlanta. Currently Air Tran offers international flights to destinations like Bermuda, Bahamas and the Aruba. Places like California and Orange County are not been served by the carrier as of now.

Southwest, last week, said that Air Tran in 2012 will stop operating in United States airports in Tennessee, Knoxville, Miami International, Central Illinois Regional Airport, West Virginia’s Charleston’s Yeager Airport and Dulles International near Washington, D.C. however Southwest operations will remain unaffected at Dulles.

Air Tran’s network is being changed by Southwest to create more point to point flights to larger cities and minimize dependence on less profitable passengers who travel. The Air Tran unit has announced its plans to halt most of the cities it served prior to its acquisition by Southwest. The services will drop to 10 of the 71 cities and these new flights are being added in part by repositioning those flights.

Gary Kelly, Chief Executive of Southwest, in an interview in October said that passengers who travel nonstop are comparatively more profitable than those who connect and changes to the Air Tran network including its Atlanta hub might generate around $750 million to $1 billion in fresh revenue for the carrier.

Air Tran, while announcing the service closures, cited increased fuel rates and said that the affected workers will be given options to move elsewhere within the company. Jordan said that services of these flights to respected cities make no sense any longer for Air Tran.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.