Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) has beaten out American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and PEOPLExpress in securing two within-perimeter slots at Washington National made available by the US Department of Transportation (DOT). The budget carrier will now use the slots to permanently operate daily return flights to Kansas City International.
The slots were relinquished by Republic Airlines (Indianapolis International) in February last year following the disposal of its then subsidiary, Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International), to Indigo Partners LLC. Frontier had used the slots to operate its own Kansas City flights.
In its ruling, the DOT cited Southwest’s bigger planes (B737-700s), low fares and passenger demand for the Kansas City route for its decision. Southwest had already temporarily been granted the slots before and is currently already operating on the route.
Other proposals put forward included a E190-operated service to Jacksonville International, FL (jetBlue), a CRJ200-operated service to Islip (American), and a seasonal B737-400-operated service to Myrtle Beach International and West Palm Beach International (PEOPLExpress).
