Southwest Airlines announced today intentions to serve Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey from March 2011, using slots leased from Continental Airlines. The lease deal is contingent upon the closing of the United/Continental merger by November 30, 2010, and is still subject to government approvals. The slot deal is for 36 slots at the airport, which is a large hub for legacy Continental and a medium sized station for discounter JetBlue. The slots would allow Southwest to serve up to 18 daily roundtrip flights.
"We are excited by the opportunity to initiate service from Newark, New Jersey, and we plan to enable that service starting next March through continued flight schedule optimization using our existing fleet," said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President of Strategy and Planning. Jordan also mentioned demand for the carrier's year-old service at LaGuardia, which supplements decade old service to Long Island MacArthur Airport, has remained high. Southwest had shown interest in additional slots at LaGuardia which would have been divested by US Airways and Delta during a recent proposed slot swap, but the two carriers ultimately chose to end that deal after it found FAA restrictions on the swap too onerous. Those airlines have filed suit with the FAA over the failed deal.
Southwest has not announced which cities it would serve initially from Newark, which would be introduced in stages from March through June 2011. The airline is currently working with the Port Authority, Continental, United, and the FAA to secure necessary properties in Newark for the new service, should the covenants of the slot lease be successfully met.
Southwest had previously announced new service to Greenville/Spartanburg and Charleston, South Carolina in 2011, and until the announcement of the Newark service had said it plans to add no other markets or aircraft in 2010 or 2011. Southwest has said the new service will be supported without a net increase in aircraft, instead using greater scheduling efficiency to free additional aircraft time to operate the new service.
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