US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, AirTran Airways, and Virgin America have all announced plans to increase the number of seats to all three Washington D.C. area airports for President Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. Southwest Airlines said that they will be concentrating on increasing flights from their hub at Baltimore-Washington (BWI) and US Airways will be concentrating on their focus city Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). US Airways said that they will also be increasing the number of flights to Washington’s Dulles Airport as well. The new service will also include larger aircraft – increasing the seats even further.
US Airways’ service will operate from the carriers hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia and Phoenix. Other cities include: Boston, New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Orlando, Tampa, Detroit, Indianapolis, Dallas Ft. Worth, Nashville, Louisville, and Kansas City. Overall, 27 new flights will be offered to the three airports, beginning January 17th.
JetBlue gets credit for being the first to add extra flights to Washington D.C. The carrier is adding extra flights from Oakland, Long Beach, and New York’s JFK. The carrier will also be running a special – Chicago O’Hare to Washington D.C. without the usual stop at JFK.
Virgin America said that they will be increasing the number of flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Washington D.C. What a great opportunity for them to make some good first impressions on new fliers. I think I should also point out that Virgin America just won some impressive rankings in the 2008 Zagat Airline Survey; Number 1 in mid-sized domestic category for premium, and second for economy class.
Now, back to Southwest. The airline said that they are adding 26 flights to and from Baltimore and Washington Dulles between the 17th and 23rd of January. These airports include Houston and Austin. I’m guessing many of their focus cities / “hubs” will gain some routes to Washington D.C.
AirTran is adding flights from their hub in Atlanta to Washington’s Dulles and Baltimore-Washington. Milwaukee gained more flights to Baltimore-Washington as well. AirTran said that they may add more flights, depending on demand.
According to Bloomberg, Delta will add 14 percent more seats from its Atlanta hub to Washington on January 17th. Delta will then boost capacity by 21 percent back to Atlanta the day after the inauguration.
Seems like the big three Washington airports will have their gates well utilized this upcoming mid-January.
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