USA: Southwest Airlines Passenger Numbers Soar To Over Seven Million

Southwest Airlines launched its first international route from Nashville on 11 November 2017, a weekly service to Cancún in Mexico. Southwest is the largest operator at Nashville, accounting for 54% of the airport’s total traffic.

Since 2013, the airline has reported an average year-on-year increase in traffic from the airport of 7.8%, with the number of passengers it carries from the Tennessee city growing from 5.49 million in 2013 to 7.45 million in 2017.

Southwest Airlines is the largest operator at Nashville Airport, accounting for a 54% share of the airport’s total passenger movements between October 2017 and September 2018, with over 8.05 million customers being transported to/from the airport by the airline during this period.

To give an idea of how dominant Southwest is at Nashville, the airport’s second biggest operator, Delta Air Lines carried a little under 1.65 million passengers within the same period on 12 routes, accounting for 11% of the airport’s total traffic. Southwest presently operates 39 routes from Nashville on either a seasonal or year-round basis.

Southwest Airlines transported 7.45 million passengers from Nashville in 2017, up 7.7% versus the 6.92 million it transported from the airport in 2016.

The result of last year marks a 54% increase in annual passengers for the airline from the airport versus 2008, when it carried 4.83 million people from the Tennessee airport.

During the past decade, Southwest has reported two years where passenger numbers fell, with 2009 seeing a 3.4% drop in passengers carried versus 2008, and 2012 when numbers fell by 1.0% when compared to 2011.

While full year data for 2018 is presently not available, it should be noted that data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has confirmed that 8.05 million passengers were transported in the 12-month period between October 2017 and September 2018.

For the first nine months of this year, Southwest Airlines carried just under 6.14 million passengers from Nashville, up 11% versus the same ninth-month period of last year when 5.52 million people were flown by Southwest to and from the city.

If the airline is able to maintain its 11% growth rate for the last quarter of 2018, then it will have flown roughly 8.28 million passengers from Nashville, up 71% versus the same traffic levels encountered in 2008.

Baltimore/Washington and Chicago Midway are Southwest’s top routes from Nashville, with both seeing 35 weekly flights a piece during the week. As stated, the airline operated 39 routes from the airport in 2018, on either a seasonal or year-round basis.

For the airline, last year was a quiet one with regards to adding new destinations, with just two routes being launched from Nashville, namely to Atlanta and Oklahoma City.

However, while the new route count is low, the airline is operating 30 weekly departures to Atlanta, catapulting it into being the airline’s third biggest route from Nashville, while also breaking Delta’s monopoly on the route to the world’s busiest airport.

Looking ahead to 2019, Southwest is already showing that growth is set to continue from Nashville, with the airline already confirmed to add five new routes from the airport this year. The first to launch will be on 7 January when it begins services to New York Newark.

Coincidentally, this route is a relaunch from when the airline closed the airport pair back in April 2016, with this also being the last route that was dropped by the airline from Nashville.

Following on from this, the other four new routes will begin in June, namely Burbank, San Jose, Norfolk and Omaha.

Southwest Airlines operated 39 routes from Nashville in 2018 on either a seasonal or year-round basis, with its two new routes last year being Atlanta and Oklahoma City.

In 2019, the airline has confirmed that it will add five new routes from Nashville, namely New York Newark, Burbank, San Jose, Norfolk and Omaha.


Tourism Observer

USA: Regional Jet Operator ViaAir Makes New Connections

ViaAir launched flights between Orlando Sanford (SFB) and Columbia (CAE) on 21 December.

The US regional operator will serve the 573-kilometre route four times weekly, with departures on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The carrier will operate the sector using its fleet of 30-seat EMB 120s, with no other airline currently flying the airport pair.

Situated in South Carolina, Columbia Airport handled 1,077,188 passengers in 2017. During the first eight months of 2018, 772,614 people have used the airport, up 8.6% versus the same period of 2017 based on statistics published by the airport.

ViaAir becomes the airport’s fourth operator, with it already served by the USB3 carriers of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

ViaAir has launched its second route from Austin (AUS), with the US regional operator starting a link to Tucson (TUS) on 18 January.

Joining its existing service to Hayden/Steamboat Springs which began 13 December, the carrier will operate the 1,278-kilometre route between Austin and Tucson three times weekly using its ERJ 145s, with no other airline currently serving the city pair.

The regional jet operator will launch a third connection from Austin on 1 March, a three times weekly link to Oklahoma City.

The airline previously served Austin from Branson in Missouri, but the route is no longer bookable on the carrier’s website, the last service flew in November.

ViaAir has commenced flights between Austin (AUS) and Oklahoma City (OKC). Inaugurated on 22 April, the US regional operator will fly the 578-kilometre sector six times weekly, with it facing no direct competition on the airport pair.

The airline will utilise its 50-seat ERJ 145s on the city pair. Based on MIDT data, some 24,900 passengers travelled indirectly between the two airports in 2017, with Dallas/Fort Worth being the leading hub for connecting traffic.

Demand on the Austin to Oklahoma City airport pair grew by 4.2% last year versus the number of passengers travelling between the two points in 2016.

ViaAir is a US domestic regional airline offering scheduled service across the United States. The airline originally focused on scheduled Essential Air Service from Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beckley, West Virginia, Parkersburg/Marietta in Parkersburg, West Virginia to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Via Airlines was established on March 27, 1997 and operated public and private charter flights for corporations, sports teams, casinos, and air travel functions before expanding to scheduled passenger flight services with ViaAir.

ViaAir began its EAS scheduled flights in December 2014, with the inaugural flight to Beckley, WV taking place on December 3. Prior to ViaAir beginning flights, air service was operated by United Express.

The same day as the inaugural Beckley flight, ViaAir announced it would be operating seasonal unsubsidized nonstop service from Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Northeast Florida Regional Airport in St. Augustine, Florida, with its inaugural flight taking place on December 19, 2014.

After a seasonal trial, an agreement was reached to continue service to St. Augustine from Charlotte and Beckley. In early November 2015, ViaAir announced it would extend its St. Augustine service into 2016.

ViaAir, with flights operated by the Charter Air Transport fleet, offers additional air travel options with its AirCruise and Air Tours products. ViaAir's aviation products began in 2009 with its Air Tours, and introduced AirCruise in 2011.

AirCruise introduced a concept similar to naval cruises, but that transports passengers by plane instead of by boat. While naval cruising is limited to ports, AirCruise is able to reach landlocked destinations.

On November 15, 2017, ViaAir announced two new destinations from Austin (Oklahoma City and Tucson), taking its total destinations from Austin up to four.

Coinciding with this information was the announcement that ViaAir plans to base crews and maintenance at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, positioning its Austin based operations to expand.

We will roll out additional cities throughout next year as we hope to be known as Austin’s hometown airline.

On February 9, 2018 Via announced two new destinations from Austin (Little Rock and Tulsa), bringing the total of destinations served from Austin up to six.


Tourism Observer

UGANDA: Wasps Sting American Tourist, Gloria Suemiller To Death

A 65-year-old American tourist has been killed by insects - wasps in Bwindi impenetrable National park in Rubanda District in Western Uganda.

Gloria Suemiller, a resident of Oklahoma, USA was attacked at about 10:30 am on Thursday while on tour in Bwindi National Park where she had gone for gorilla trekking.

She was in a group of other tourists and husband, White Gary Lynn, 74, with whom they had traveled all the way from Kigali, Rwanda.

They had spent a night at Ruhija sector. The other tourists escaped unhurt, according to police.

The case is under police investigations at Ruhija police post under reference number SD 06/24/05/2018.

This is the third tourist to die in Uganda in the last two months.

Mukesh Shukla, 60, a British national died on April 7, 2018 as he climbed a hill in Butanda Sub County in Kabale District, also located in western Uganda.

On April 14, 2018 Tutin Jean Piere, 63, a French national collapsed and died during a gorilla trekking trip in the northern sector of Bwindi National Park in Kanungu District.

Piere, who also worked with the French Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was in the company of some friends when he died.


Tourism Observer

MADAGASCAR: Endangered Tortoises Rescued.

International conservationists in Madagascar have been treating more than 10,000 critically endangered radiated tortoises that were seized from traffickers who had crammed them into a home with no access to food or water.

The Turtle Survival Alliance and other groups are caring for the tortoises at a wildlife facility in the Ifaty region of the Indian Ocean nation, though hundreds have died from illness and dehydration.

The alliance says the radiated tortoises were found by police at a home in Toliara on April 10 and that they likely had been collected for the illegal pet trade, possibly in Asia.

Radiated tortoises are coveted for the star pattern on their shells.

Most of the surviving tortoises appear fairly healthy, said Susie Bartlett, a veterinarian with the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society who described the challenges of working with the huge number of tortoises.

Each morning, ill tortoises that are under veterinary care are collected from their enclosures and brought to the clinic in large tubs and pans, Bartlett wrote in an email.

Sick animals are given subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate them and antibiotics if needed, along with vitamin supplementation.

This is easily done with the sick tortoises that do not have much strength to retract their heads and legs.

However, as tortoises get stronger it gets more difficult to extend a leg out of a shell to find a fold of skin for an injection, according to Bartlett.

Some of the rescued animals have eye and mouth infections and are given pain medicine.

Conservationists from Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee, Hogle Zoo in Utah, Dallas Zoo and Oklahoma City Zoo are participating in the rescue.

About 1,500 radiated tortoises deemed to be healthy have already been moved to other facilities in Madagascar.

Radiated tortoises used to be found along roadways in the dry, spiny forests of south and southwest Madagascar where they live but poaching and habitat loss have taken a heavy toll, according to a red list of threatened species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The list says Asian smugglers are known to collect the tortoises and that tortoise meat is popular among some people in Madagascar.


Tourism Observer

USA: Southwest Airlines Makes Expansion Strategies

Southwest Airlines announced expansion in their operations, which will be effective from this week.

These flights were inaugurated from April 8 and saw 11 nonstop routes take off.

The services will take customers to the following destinations and origins:

- San Jose-Boise

- San Jose-Houston

- San Jose-Spokane

- San Jose-St. Louis

- San Jose-New Orleans

- San Francisco-Austin

- Sacramento-Austin

- Sacramento-St. Louis

- Oakland-Newark

- San Diego-Newark

On top of this, the carrier began new intra-Florida services between Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville, which will operate three times per day.

Southwest also celebrated brand new daily non-stop flights between Raleigh and Kansas City as well as a Sunday-only service between Austin and Indianapolis respectively.

Futhermore, a new Saturday service will be implemented on April 14 between Oakland and Orlando, marking the first time that Southwest Airlines has ever connected the Bay Area and Orlando via a non-stop service.

This service will then be upgraded to daily services from July 2018.

The carrier will also be adding a seasonal service between Kansas City and Pensacola as well as between Orlando and Oklahoma City.

Moreover, Southwest will begin non-stop services between Pheonix and New York’s La Guardia, which will continue until June 2018.

Internationally, the carrier is making some further gains out of Cancun where weekly seasonal flights will operate on Saturdays between Colombus and New Orleans to Cancun.

Southwest currently carries over 120 million passengers per year and have a workforce of 56,000 employees that will help sustain this growth going into the future.

These expansions will come following the number of 737 MAX’s delivered to Southwest Airlines as well as the many more that are on the way.

These aircraft will replace older generation aircraft as well as add to the total fleet, thus allowing Southwest to expand in such a significant manner.



Tourism Observer