Four more AirTran cities won"t fly for Southwest
AirTran announced on Friday that it will end flights to five more cities as a result of its acquisition by Southwest.
This coming June, the Southwest subsidiary says it will discontinue service to Bloomington/Normal, Ill.; Charleston, W. Va.; Knoxville, Tenn; Miami and Washington Dulles.
ALSO ONLINE: Southwest using AirTran to add Mexico routesALSO ONLINE: Snapshot of new Southwest/AirTran routes
Washington Dulles also is served by Southwest, which says it will continue to serve that airport. The other four cities, however, are served by AirTran and not by Southwest, which means they will not make it through to airlines" post-merger route-map.
In a press release, AirTran says it "can no longer support service to these particular markets in light of the realities of the challenging economic environment and sustained high fuel prices. The airline has a keen focus on aligning its service with Customer demand and making capacity available for future opportunities without growing the current fleet."
The Dallas Morning News notes "all five airports are small parts of AirTran"s network," adding that "the carrier operates one