Southwest delivers one-two low-fare punch

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 27, 2007 | by Tim Simmers

One day after launching service with 18 daily flights at San Francisco International Airport, Southwest Airlines announced Monday an expansion of its SFO service.

Starting Nov. 4, the low-fare carrier will add eight daily flights to Los Angeles International Airport with an eye-popping one- way introductory fare of $39.

Southwest on Sunday started its largest initial new-city schedule in history at SFO, with low introductory one-way fares on departures to San Diego ($39), Las Vegas ($59) and Chicago ($99).

"It's a bullish sign to announce more flights right away, but our customers want lots of flights," said Gary Kelly, chief executive officer of Southwest. "We look forward to growing here, and are putting no limits on it."

Kelly added that he is "extremely pleased" with demand for the launch's first SFO flights on Sunday and Monday.

The airline is returning to SFO after canceling service six years ago due to high costs, flight delays and curbs on growth. But costs have been cut by nearly two-thirds, and the airline has the OK to grow at SFO, Kelly said.

Southwest is operating out of two gates in Terminal 1 and plans to add two more gates in November.

The quick expansion to include Los Angeles service comes less than three weeks after low-fare carrier Virgin America's SFO launch, which included five daily flights to Los Angeles International with an introductory fare of $44 one way. Virgin America also has two daily flights to New York.