Southwest Airlines is planning to start international operations. When? No one knows for sure, but these routes will be coming. With legacy carriers so heavily invested in international routes, the prospect of a battle with Southwest is not welcome.
Two years ago, I wrote about this coming development. The economic downturn has delayed the inevitable. However, U.S. low cost carriers will eventually start flying routes across the Atlantic and down to South America.
Southwest Airlines plans to open international routes to Europe and South America, although so far there is “no timetable” for the move.
“Europe and South America are our first choice. . .but currently we are still evaluating our options,” Lipton said. Southwest Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly said last month that the LCC is “seriously considering” operating international flights to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean as soon as 2011.
Back in 2007 I wrote that the low cost carriers would come into the international arena. In fact, the beginnings of this reality were already in place. The international route structures that were formed back when this article was written have only been strengthened.
JetBlue has expanded in the Caribbean and has requested code-share permissions with Lufthansa. Earlier this week, Porter Air just announced new flights from their base in Toronto to Boston.
Change is already afoot. Low-cost carriers full of vacationers have begun to fly international routes to the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. JetBlue has launched its first international code share with Aer Lingus, one of the few European legacy airlines to adopt a low-cost, simplified pricing system. Virgin Blue is making plans to fly trans-Pacific from Australia to the United States, putting new pressures on Qantas and United. Jet Airways, an Indian startup, has already received approval for a new trans-Atlantic flight from Newark to Brussels and onward to Mumbai. Porter Airlines, another little-known startup, is plying the skies between Newark and Toronto, and Zoom Airlines, a Canadian bargain startup, is now flying from JFK to London Gatwick.
Get ready airline alliances. Here come some new players with plenty of cash and a history of actually making millions of dollars for their investors. The international honeypot that once attracted legacy carriers only two years ago, is about to become a bit more crowded and far more competitive.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
