Southwest, AirTran adding flights from Tampa

June 05--TAMPA -- Southwest Airlines will add seasonal flights between Tampa International Airport and Milwaukee, as will its AirTran subsidiary between Tampa and Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; and Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y., all beginning Nov. 4.

Southwest will retain its schedules between Tampa and Buffalo, Columbus and Pittsburgh, with the AirTran additions bolstering winter travel to and from Florida.

The changes are part of Southwest's latest extension of flights now available through Jan. 4.

Southwest also announced it will take over from AirTran the Tampa-Key West daily flight on Nov. 4 in the ongoing incorporation of the airline Southwest acquired in May 2011. It will take several years to integrate AirTran into Southwest's network, and then the AirTran brand will disappear.

Last month, Southwest announced a deal that makes the AirTran acquisition more cost-effective by unloading 88 Boeing 717 jets that AirTran operates to Delta Air Lines.

Although Southwest operates a number of variants of the Boeing 737, including 52 it is acquiring with AirTran, the airline has touted flying only a single type of aircraft, as it has since it started, as a significant cost-effective advantage.

Delta has said it will use the Boeing 717s to replace smaller regional jets and older aircraft.

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