Editors note: Apparently, I triggered a lot of people (three) who didn’t like the word flight was spelt fight. There were some issues with this post in how it was built, which required a full re-write.. everywhere. Apologies if you were offended.
And if you want to take it up with my editor, that would be me too.
PS. Those comments have been deleted and not approved . I have a life outside writing y’know….
It seems Southwest Airlines are cutting back services to Newark, New Jersey from the 3rd November 2019, as it consolidates its New York operation at LaGuardia Airport.
Southwest Boeing 737-700 in classic colours taxing at Newark International Airport (circa 2012) – Image ,Economy Class and Beyond.
So, what happened? It seems that a mixture of the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX family as well as below expectations revenue has caused Southwest to pull the routes from Newark.
Here’s the quote from the earnings report
“Based on the extensive delays in returning the MAX to service, we expect that annual 2019 ASMs will now decrease in the 1 to 2 percent range, year-over-year, compared with our original 2019 plan to grow capacity nearly 5 percent, year-over-year. As such, we are taking necessary steps to mitigate damages and optimize our aircraft and resources.
We will cease operations at Newark Liberty International Airport and consolidate our New York City presence at New York LaGuardia Airport, effective November 3, 2019.
The financial results at Newark have been below expectations, despite the efforts of our excellent Team at Newark. I am grateful to our wonderful Newark Employees, who are a top priority, and will be given an opportunity to relocate to another station in our system, including LaGuardia Airport, where we are experiencing strong Customer demand. As part of this move, we will offer options and flexibility for Customers to recover planned travel from other area airports.”
Further bad news for the MAX
It’s not so good news either for the Boeing 737 MAX for Southwest, with the airline extending the grounding of the type through to 5th January 2020 – the first US airline to extend its grounding into the new year.
And for Boeing, that’s not good news at all as it seeks to get the type re-certified by October. Least of all if the grounding continues beyond that point, there’s a strong chance the 737 production line will come to a stop for a while.
That could have repercussions through the entire aviation supply chain.
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I’m surprised Southwest is completely pulling out of Newark and not keeping at least a small station with flights to one or two major connection points such as Chicago-Midway and/or Baltimore. People in a large part of New Jersey use EWR as their first airport, and until you get far enough south to make Philadelphia an alternative their next choice is JFK, which Southwest doesn’t serve. People from the northern Shore aren’t going to drive to LaGuardia unless the fare is incredibly low. It’s a pretty big market to just walk away from, although I admit closing a station outright (especially if the yield aren’t great) probably saves more money than small cuts across the network.
Will be interesting to see who tries to get the gates – I’ve already seen speculation that Delta is the most likely candidate, but Delta is in Terminal B while Southwest is in Terminal A. The next most likely candidate, Spirit, is also in Terminal B. Not sure if there’s enough opportunity yield-wise to offset the inefficiencies or the expense of getting someone else to move so you have enough space all in one place. American and JetBlue are both in A, but American’s never shown much interest in flights out of Newark beyond their hubs (and they already connect all the hubs to EWR), and JetBlue doesn’t seem to have much interest in EWR beyond a few Caribbean destinations and Florida. I guess B6 could do a combination of a few more frequencies to existing Florida destinations and add Jacksonville?
@Craig, I’d love to see Alaska get those gates. They are very reliable for coast-to-coast travel, have a decent frequent flier program (compared to the Delta anyway), and have solid (not perfect) customer service. I’m pulling for Alaska! 🙂
Obviously you’re a well traveled person whereas I am
Not exactly sure what you’re talking about as I’ve never traveled to Newark or JFK or nearby states other than Florida. All I Know, is that I will never step food in that max airplane that kills people.
Why would they focus on LaGuardia? You can’t get there on a subway or AirTrain and your cab/Uber/Lyft/friend can’t drop you off at the curb because of the construction. In other words, to get to LaGuardia right now (the last I checked anyway), you have to take a bus from one place or another. LaGuardia is a joke so I don’t use it at all.
I fly in and out of Newark or JFK every other week. Since I live on the lower west side of Manhattan, I like Newark because it shaves 30 minutes from my train/AirTrain from Penn Station commute compared to JFK. Unfortunately, Newark’s construction can sometimes cause TSA to shut down the TSA pre-check so we have to go into the insanely long regular lines. Annoying as that is, that happens at JFK, too.
My biggest complaint about Southwest from New York is that they don’t have any direct flights to the west coast and their short flights aren’t competitively priced, so I’ve completely taken them off my list for travel from New York. When I fly along the west coast, I use SWA regularly and like them. Too bad they don’t have the same presence on the east coast.
Newark will be closing Terminal A completely in 2021 as the new Terminal 1 starts operations in late 2020 (so the NJ/NY Port Authority claims) I think SW made the right decision and acknowledge it can’t compete with United and Jet Blue from EWR to the “family destinations” and realizes it can’t get enough gates at the new terminal 1. The timing to pull out now with not great financials and grounded equipment looks great to shareholders and the proforma financials. They did the right thing in my opinion.