Southwest Airlines begins daily,nonstop service today from Dulles Airport to four U.S. cities. The new flights are the first low-cost option for Dulles passengers since the demise of Independence Air earlier this year.
Southwest will offer a total of 12 daily flights to Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Orlando, Fla., and Tampa Bay, Fla. The flights are an expansion of the airline’s existing service out of Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which already offers 172 flights daily to multiple cities.
The Dulles service “gives Northern Virginia customers an alternative,” said Whitney Eichinger, a Southwest spokeswoman. “If there had been customers not willing to drive to Baltimore, this will give them access [to Southwest].”
Although Dulles-based Independence Air folded earlier this year amid financial struggles, analysts are predicting Southwest will hold its own at Dulles and may force airfares down among its competitors.
Southwest at Dulles “is a big deal,” said Adam Pilarski, senior vice of Avitas, a Chantilly-based aviation consulting firm. “They’re the only airline that has been profitable (since their founding in 1971). They usually don’t make mistakes so the fact that they’re going into Dulles, I’m thoroughly confident they did their homework.”
Southwest Airlines made its name by offering cut-rate ticket prices. For example, customers can purchase $59 one-way tickets from Dulles to Chicago.
However, Southwest typically flies out of lower-traffic airports, such as Baltimore in the Washington region and Long Island in the New York area.
The move to Dulles represents a willingness to take on traditional airlines, Pilarski said.
“To some degree, this is a revolutionary development,” he said. “They would traditionally develop at the farther, cheaper airports … but there are many people [at Dulles] who want to take advantage of flying low-cost domestically.”
Southwest has no concrete plans to expand its Dulles service in the future, Eichinger said, but will monitor the success of the new flights and make any expansion decisions in six months to a year.
