Southwest Airlines gets Approval for Houston Hobby International Terminal

[AggieDiver]

Their stated intention is to open up routes to Latin America and the Caribbean with lower fares. Hopefully this will lead to more competition and lower fares to Coz and other dive destinations.

Southwest gets OK for international flights at Hobby | Newswatch | a Chron.com blog

 

[cbrich]

Interesting, hopefully Southwest can knock the cost of flights back down to $300-$400 price range. Imagine getting a flight to Coz for $99.

 

[Ron Lee]

Imagine getting a flight to Coz for $99.

Do not count on that. The US and Mexico fees/taxes alone are around $100 USD from my area.

 

[AggieDiver]

Yeah, I doubt it will be that cheap, but the days of United gouging fliers through Houston on flights to Latin America are almost certainly numbered. I am not expecting a situation like when TACA was offering $149 Roatan fares to dry up Sol's business, but I expect Southwest to price very competitively and for other airlines to be forced to cut most of the fat out of their fares as well. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Southwest start flying to Coz for $250-$350 depending on jet fuel prices.

 

[Brules]

I avoid Houston like the plague, but if SWA starts flying to Coz out of there, I would not hesitate!

 

[Merfman]

EXCELLENT news! Thanks for sharing!

 

[AggieDiver]

Just to clarify, the original story said that the deal was approved. It has been clarified to indicate that formal approval via city council vote won't happen until next week, but given Houston politics and the strong mayor system we have, it would be a big shock if she made this announcement without knowing she had the votes for approval. The big stumbling block with a few of the council members was apparently what the city's financial role or obligation would be in the deal. By offering to pay for the whole deal themselves, Southwest just took that objection away from United supporters.

 

[sharky60]

We've been waiting for this to happen for some time. Love Field, Dallas & Southwest have had to deal with "The Wright Amendment" for years. Since the big airport was built in the early '70's, I think it was.

It was a complicated law that was supposed to help the DFW airport get off the ground, by restricting flights out of Love Field to not being able to "jump" states that are immediately joining Texas. In other words, a flight out of Love can not fly to Missouri without stopping in Oklahoma first.

The Wright Amendment is slowly being phased out (finally! DFW is doing fine and is in no trouble of going out of business due to Love traffice), it will be gone by 2014, that is probobly when Southwest will go fully international.

This is great news! Southwest is a VERY well run company, it treats it's customers and more importantly, in my opinion, it's employees with great respect & they have a very good business model...unlike a certain other airline that is hubbed here in the Dallas area and is going through bankruptcy.

 

[Brules]

Wow SW can go Int'l in 2014? That is AWESOME news......the bigs better watch out....!

 

[ccannon707]

And bags fly free!