Southwest Air Share at New Orleans Airport Challenged by Rivals

Air service at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport continues to rise on the wings of its most dominant airlines.

Some carriers have seized upon the recovery period to gain a bigger market share of Crescent City air travel.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Southwest Airlines was the market share leader at LANOIA, averaging just less than 30 percent of all seats sold at 129,000 seats. Market share can fluctuate depending on carriers adding or increasing seats in a certain month.

Since the storm, Southwest schedulers have slowly restored flights and seats eliminated immediately after the hurricane and have lost a bit of market share as a result. Post-Katrina, Southwest's market share fluctuated from 21 percent in spring 2006 to 29 percent in October 2006 to just more than 25 percent in April.

Fewer Southwest fights post-Katrina opened the gates for other airlines such as Continental, American and JetBlue to add flights to locations underserved in the New Orleans market, officials say.

"We continue to see good levels of business coming in and out of New Orleans," said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas. "We're pretty darn close to where we were pre-hurricane. "

As of April, American's 16.6 percent market share was the second-highest in New Orleans with 48,534 seats. This is a 35 percent increase from 12.3 percent market share, or 56,620 seats, during the same period in 2005. The airline offers 13 roundtrip flights a day to four destinations.

Houston-based Continental Airlines also added seats, stepping up the most when New Orleans has an influx of convention or festival travelers, said airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut.

Continental's 11.2 percent market share rose 46 percent from 51,744 seats in April 2005 to 16.3 percent market share or 49,827 seats for the same month this year.

"Continental ... is pleased with the performance of our flights post-Katrina," said spokeswoman Mary Clark. "We returned to pre-Katrina departure levels sooner than any other carrier and remain committed to helping regenerate business for New Orleans. We continue to work with the airport and the (New Orleans Metropolitan) Convention & Visitors Bureau to add service when the demand dictates, such as during special events, conventions and festivals. "

In an example of seasonal seat increases, US Airways increased its number of seats 156 percent since 2006 - from 11,593 in 2006 to 29,662. Compared with pre-Katrina seats, US Airways actually is down 35 percent from 45,421 seats to 29,662.

"We were a little cautious adding back capacity the year after the hurricane but now we're essentially catching up, that's why you're seeing this growth," said Valerie Wunder, a spokeswoman for US Airways. "We're always keeping our eyes on New Orleans but right now we're just going to stick with the growth we've added. "

JetBlue's market share has increased 71 percent from 2005 to 300 daily seats. JetBlue offers two nonstop flights to New York's Kennedy Airport and will add a third flight in November, although it will still provide 300 seats, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

"We're currently using (Airbus) A320's with 150 seats but in November we'll be switching to three Embraer 190 aircrafts with 100 seats ... so people will have more flight options," Baldwin said. "We've used Embraers successfully from New York to Boston and Austin, (Texas), to New York. It gives us more flexibility with our schedule. "

Baldwin says JetBlue has no specific plans to add more seats or flights to other Northeast markets. "But we're always evaluating stimulating the New Orleans market," he said.

In June, Southwest added a nonstop flight to Dallas with 137 seats because the airline was "encouraged by the amount of traffic and the extra flights that our competitors were putting in," said Southwest senior scheduler Stuart Thomas. He said fall will be a good opportunity to update service according to customer demand, particularly to business-flyer markets like Nashville, Tenn., Chicago or Boston.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.