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Meet me in St. Louis! As AA pulls down flights, Southwest lays on new nonstops
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The market abhors a vacuum. That’s good for the good folks of St. Louis (STL). Now that American Airlines is effectively dismantling its mid-America mini-hub at Lambert-St. Louis International, discount airline Southwest is really ramping up operations - laying on nine nonstop flights to six destinations.
Come May 2010, look for Southwest to start flying twice daily ‘twixt STL and Nashville (BNA), once daily between St. Louis and Raleigh/Durham (RDU), daily form Lambert down the Mississippi to New Orleans (MSY), twice daily from STL to Los Angeles (LAX), one time per day from St. Louis to Seattle/Tacoma (SEA), and once daily from Lambert to San Diego (SAN).
The upshot: Southwest becomes St. Louis’ dominant airline, this as American and American Eagle retreat to their hubs at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). American and American Eagle will continue to serve STL, but service is being radically reduced.
Some perspective: once upon a time, St. Louis was TWA's prime hub, with nonstop service to London and Paris, among other places. When American acquired TWA, AA continued to operate Lambert as a hub. Geographic proximity in the middle of the country to hubs at Chicago and St. Louis, however, made STL's continuance as a hub iffy. The rancid state of the economy sealed the deal.
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