Southwest Airlines Announces Phoenix Schedule Changes for Fall
Bad news for Cleveland fans. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is eliminating direct non-stop service between Phoenix and Cleveland this fall. Schedule changes will begin taking effect this month and be fully implemented by the end of October. US Airways will continue offering direct service between Cleveland and Phoenix, indicating the airline has no changes, other than time adjustments, planned.
The news isn't quite so bad for fans of Detroit, Providence and Raleigh Durham. Southwest is cutting direct non-stop service to these cities in half but not eliminating it entirely. Direct service between Phoenix and Baltimore, Los Angeles and Las Vegas will also see slight reductions, however, the greater number of flights to these cities make the impact limited. Vision Airways also offers service to Las Vegas, through Williams Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona and North Las Vegas Airport on Friday and Sunday afternoons and evenings.
Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport was the seventh busiest airport in the nation in April according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released today. On a typical day, nearly 1,500 aircraft arrive and depart from Sky Harbor carrying more than 108,880 passengers. Between January and April 2007, more than 687,500 passengers enplaned in Phoenix, an increase of 1.3 percent over the same period in 2006.
The BTS indicate that Southwest Airlines carried more domestic passengers than any other airline with more than 840,000 passengers enplaning in April 2007, the most recent month for which statistics are available.
