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

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: Alaska Airlines Unveils Brand Change

Alaska Airlines has unveiled its first major identity change in over 25 years. The news broke in a moment in which the carrier remains independent, turning profits and ranking in the top of best on-time performance in the U.S. as the first 737-800 (N563AS, MSN 35180 / LN 2090) was repainted and shared with about 2,000 employees on hand for a company event held in Seattle. Heavily rumored for some time, Alaska endeavored to keep the new look a surprise by flying the plane into Sea-Tac last night in the cover of darkness.

“Our company has a unique personality and a vibrant spirit that our Eskimo has personified for almost half a century,” said Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden. “We believe our refreshed look reflects the warm relationships our employees have built with our customers, and makes us stand out in a compelling and consistent way as we expand into new markets, build loyalty and attract new customers.”

For the most part, the plane is similar to in the past. The tail got the biggest upgrade, going from just white to a nice dark blue background that we had seen in past years on the inverse AlaskaAir.com plane, N548AS before it was repainted in standard livery. A smiling Eskimo survived to see another plane while the carrier decided to take some lessons on its university planes, running blue and green stripes up the tail while leaving the nose all white.

Finally, on the front of the plane the carrier updated its logo for the second time in two years, this time going for more of a flat and bold standard font and no longer using the rough edges on the letters.

Employees were excited to see the new standard scheme get unveiled as this is the first time since 1991 that a totally new livery new has adorned an Alaska Airlines jet. This is the eighth standard livery for the carrier who launched all the way back in 1932 as McGee Airways and began offering flights out of Anchorage Alaska.

According to the airline, the brand change will also tell the story of the iconic Eskimo face that has been featured on its plane’s tail for 43 years. That iconic logo is an illustration of a real person, Chester Seveck, a reindeer herder and a Eskimo dancer who greeted deplaning tourists at Kotzebue (OTZ) for years. When first introduced, Chester’s expression was more of a frown, but this was quickly changed to a more cheerful smile. Back in 1988, the airline explored replacing the face of Chester with a new insignia. At the end, those plans were shelved after the outcry of Alaskans and customers as well.

“When I see that face, I feel proud. I feel like I’m home,” says Sallee Baltierra, a concierge in Alaska’s Anchorage Board Room airport lounge. “I love to see that Eskimo on the tail in other cities that we fly to, from Liberia, Costa Rica to Nashville, Tennessee. It makes me feel like there’s a little piece of home there waiting for me.”

Today the carrier offers flights to 111 destinations across the US, Mexico, Canada and new daily flights to Costa Rica. We don’t have any word yet on when the first Horizon Air Q400 will come out of the paint shop in the new livery but certainly can’t wait to see it. In addition to the newly painted plane, starting tomorrow travelers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will see a more welcoming lobby and 41 newly branded gates.

“Our refreshed brand really is an evolution, not a revolution, of Alaska Airlines,” said Sangita Woerner, the airline’s vice president of marketing. “Our goal was to reflect the soul of our company, which is known for its genuine, caring service and top-notch performance. It’s now time to show up to our customers in a bigger, brighter way.”

Alaska Airlines will take delivery of four new 737-900ER’s in the new livery, in total 40 of the airlines 147 planes will be in the new scheme by the end of 2016. The first Q400 will also be expected to rollout later this year in the new colors.