Air carrier Southwest Airlines Co. on Friday said it will resume service to San Francisco International Airport.
The company said it is in talks with the airport and aims to return in early fall.
Southwest stopped flying to SFO in 2001 after almost 20 years of service to the airport. It said facility and runway constraints made the low-cost carrier unable to compete and be profitable at the time.
Southwest said the decision does not affect its 142 daily departures from Oakland International airport or its 77 daily departures from Norman Y Mineta San Jose International airport.
I have the feeling that SFO destinations will be the same as OAK’s - not all of them, of course, but if it’s served from SFO it’ll be served from OAK also.
I don’t think LAX will get service. It’s already covered with very frequent flights by UAL. When they first flew out of SFO, SAN was the Southern California destination. I’m not sure if they ever did SFO/LAX. SNA is out because of slot restrictions at SNA. ONT and LAS I can see - especially ONT.
My thinking is that SWA will do longer distance flights from SFO because they are going after more medium- and long-distance routes. I see them doing a SFO/PHL or SFO/BWI nonstop at least once a day.
I think two of the best routes for WN out of SFO would be to MDW and BWI, not only because of their “focus city” status, but those two routes are always going to have high demand, and they could steal quite a bit of business from the legacies, most namely UAL (whose prices seem to be quite high the last couple of times I’ve searcdhed for flights).
I wonder what Alaska would do if Southwest did SFO-SAN. Alaska added it late fall, and last I checked it didnt come close to the fares Southwest had going into SJC or OAK.
Where does United, American, Northwest, US Airways or anyone else for that matter beat them??
Last I checked Northwest charges your for a bag of pretzels. Last month on United from SAN-DEN-MSP I got no peanuts, pretzels or snack bag and no option to buy food.
Going from OAK-SAN on Southwest I got two bags of peanuts if they duplicate that on a transcon they are one-upping their competition!
Wrong-o!
Here’s what you get on Southwest (emphasis mine):
Snack Service: If your total flight itinerary includes a series
of flights that each are less than two hours in duration, you
will be served peanuts/pretzels on each flight segment. If your
itinerary includes any nonstop flight longer than two(2) hours,
you will be served a packaged snack on that flight segment.
Southwest Airlines does not serve sandwiches or meals, however,
you may bring something to eat on board.
The snack is quite filling. It contains 3 or 4 items plus you still get the peanuts. Remember, you are flying to get from point A to point B, not to have a 5 star meal.
Last month I was on an empty SWA flight MDW-STL. There were a lot of commuting and vacationing crew on board. One of the off duty fa’s went to the back and got a case of peanuts. I asked for some extras and she dropped 30 bags on my lap. I also had their snack bags and they are just fine. I’ve requested extras and always received them.
Knowing this is the case going in, its wise to eat before boarding. I also bring protein bars and bottled water in my perfectly sized roller.
SWA also bringing back honey roasted peanuts. I can’t wait!
Oh the inhumanity of it all! Give me dry roasted peanuts or give me pretzels!
By the way, they’ve had honey roasted nuts for years - at least on the intra-California routes - so it’s not so much bringing them back but still giving them out.
I hope they do SFO-BNA. Currently we have no n/s service to SFO, and only 1 daily n/s to the bay area BNA-OAK with WN. They could probaly make a killing on BNA-SFO.
