Southwest Airlines hasn't quickly ramped up service from Chicago's Midway Airport perhaps ever before, but said today it will launch six roundtrip daily nonstop flights between Chicago, its largest hub, and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan Washington National Airport on Aug. 10.
The busy and lucrative route between Chicago and Washington, D.C. has for years been dominated by two O'Hare Airport-based carriers, United Airlines and American Airlines.
Southwest also said it will quickly jump to nine daily roundtrips from six rountrips starting Sept. 30. The kind of frequency clearly signals Southwest is targeting the high-margin business travel market on its new nonstop route. Business travelers demand high-frequency service to ensure they can get in and out of a market on their schedule, not the airline's.
Southwest previously had only offered nonstop flights between Midway and Washington Dulles International Airport, which is inconveniently located more than 30 miles outside Washington, D.C. in the Virginia countryside. Southwest's Baltimore, MD. hub was another even more inconvenient option. Reagan National is a short 20-minute subway ride into downtown Washington, and an even shorter cab ride.
Southwest gained significant access to Reagan National because of its merger with AirTran, which had some slots at Reagan National. But Southwest also benefited from the merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways. The United States Department of Transportationrequired American and U.S. Air to divest some of their lucrative slots at Reagan National in return for greenlighting the merger.
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