{"id":142903,"date":"2025-03-19T03:34:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T03:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/airline\/with-southwests-big-change-its-time-to-rethink-the-network-cranky-flier\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T03:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T03:34:42","slug":"with-southwests-big-change-its-time-to-rethink-the-network-cranky-flier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=142903","title":{"rendered":"With Southwest\u2019s Big Change, It\u2019s Time to Rethink the Network \u2013 Cranky Flier"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Thanks to Southwest\u2019s elimination of its differentiators, both United CEO Scott Kirby and Delta President Glen Hauenstein said last week that in competitive markets, Southwest\u2019s customers are up for grabs. Scott took things further in his chat at the JP Morgan Industrials Conference as he explained what should happen next.<\/p>\n

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I think the far bigger thing\u2026 it\u2019s the slaying of a sacred cow. It\u2019s one of the two big things that get Southwest back to industry-leading margin, that and stop flying places that lose money. Those who should be willing to slay one, maybe want to slay two, I don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Southwest wants to lean on its people as being the big difference, but it\u2019s really going to be about price and schedule since it has no other tangible advantages. So maybe that second sacred cow is on the table. In a price-and-schedule world, I decided to take a swing at some Cirium<\/a> data to try to think about the airline\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

For the legacy carriers, the key has always been about dominating your markets. Yes, there are smaller competitive markets, but being #1 in a big city matters. It\u2019s a version of the vaunted S-curve<\/a> at work.<\/p>\n

So what if we thought about Southwest\u2019s network from that perspective? I\u2019m assuming, importantly, that the airline still only has 737s and hasn\u2019t branched out, and it hasn\u2019t considered major changes to its product beyond what\u2019s already been announced. If those things change, well, that changes the equation entirely.<\/p>\n

I started by looking at July 2025 seats for every market Southwest served, and I do mean \u201cmarket\u201d and not \u201cairport.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s Chicago, not Midway. Anywhere you see a city name with multiple airports, it\u2019s meant to include the metro area because that\u2019s what really matters.<\/p>\n

Then, I started cutting markets out that didn\u2019t matter. I threw out international and San Juan flying since those are just spokes for travelers from the lower 48, at least they are in the Southwest network. And long-haul isn\u2019t a helpful comparison. I did the same for the ski markets in Montrose and Steamboat Springs. It\u2019s possible some of those should go and some should stay, but they should only stay in support of the market at the other end of the route.<\/p>\n

There was the issue of Hawai\u02bbi, but I decided to shelve it and ignore. That too is not a huge part of the business, but it is more than just a destination with all that interisland flying. It\u2019s a distraction from the key task at hand, so let\u2019s just pretend it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

With that, I could focus on the main parts of the network, and I came up with this map that will need more explanation:<\/p>\n

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Map was created using Doughton Data Solutions service.\u00a0doughtondata.com<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the size of the dots. Those are based entirely on how many seats Southwest has departing from the city during that month:<\/p>\n