Southwest to cut direct flights to Chicago, Dallas, add St. Louis, Phoenix

Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday it will cut nonstop flights from Wichita to Dallas and Chicago as of April 11 and replace them with daily nonstop service to St. Louis and Phoenix.

The St. Louis service will be offered twice daily, the Phoenix service once a day, both beginning April 12.

American Airlines still flies seven nonstop daily flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and American and United Airlines combined fly about seven daily flights to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The change will likely mean higher ticket prices to fly to or through Chicago and Dallas, said Valerie Wise, Air Service and Business Development manager for the Wichita Airport Authority.

“Based on what we’ve seen in the past, when a low-cost carrier exits the market, fares generally go up because of the lack of low-fare competition,” she said.

Chicago is the second-most popular destination for Wichitans, and Dallas is the fourth. Wichita passengers’ top destination is Las Vegas.

Southwest has been losing money on the Dallas and Chicago runs. According to data from Sedgwick County, the airline lost more than $3.3 million on its Wichita-Chicago route and more than $2.3 million on its Wichita-Dallas route in fiscal 2015, which ended on June 30.

Those losses have been made up for 13 years by local and state funding – called Affordable Airfares – paid first to AirTran beginning in 2002 and then to Southwest after 2011, when it bought AirTran. Affordable AirFares ends June 30.

Southwest spokesman Dan Landson didn’t say why the airline is dropping the Chicago and Dallas flights, but he did say in an e-mail that the new destinations are good.

“These two new destinations are strong, healthy local markets on their own and will bring more options for customers traveling to or from Wichita,” he wrote. “The new routes will be Wichita’s only nonstop flights to St. Louis and Phoenix Sky Harbor.”

He said there were no tickets sold for the discontinued flights after April 11.

Wise said that Wichita is, to some extent, a victim of larger shifts in the world of air travel. The 2014 repeal of the Wright Amendment, which had limited flights from Love Field in Dallas to surrounding states, meant that Southwest flights carrying people from Dallas to Chicago don’t have to land in Wichita anymore.

Because more people can now bypass Wichita, there are too many empty seats on flights in and out of Wichita.

Airline consultant Robert Mann added that the move is more about Southwest than Wichita.

Southwest announced cuts to service in several smaller cities on Tuesday as it builds Love Field into a long-distance airport. The company needs to divert planes to fly busier routes to larger airports and doesn’t want to keep gates open at Love Field for low-capacity flights arriving from Wichita.

“It’s a major evolution of Southwest on the highest and best possible way to use its assets,” Mann said. “Their objectives today are very different than they were five years ago.

“It’s not good or bad, it’s just the way it is.”

Wise characterized the route change as providing Wichita travelers with new options.

From Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Southwest serves 35 markets, such as Atlanta; Chicago; Minneapolis; Newark, N.J.; Washington; Orlando, Fla.; and San Antonio.

Phoenix is the fifth-most popular destination from the Wichita airport. And from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Southwest serves 49 markets, including Los Angeles – Wichitans’ third-most popular destination – Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver and Portland, Ore.

The new cities could mean lower prices to some destinations, more connections or both, she said.

The St. Louis route will likely lower ticket prices for Wichita travelers flying north and east. There are relatively few seats flying west, she said, and she called the new service to Phoenix Sky Harbor International superior to Allegiant Air’s service to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which has no connections.

“This is a net positive,” Wise said. “We are not losing destinations. We are gaining two Southwest low-fare impact destinations.”

But not everybody was as positive about the changes. Airline consultant Mike Boyd said there’s no doubt this is less service.

Chicago Midway is the best place to get a Southwest connection. Half the people at Midway go on to other cities, he said.

At Phoenix and St. Louis, only a third of travelers make connections, because there are fewer connections to make.

Boyd said Southwest fills 67 percent of the seats from Wichita to Dallas and Chicago, but the airline’s average is 85 percent.

Southwest isn’t making it in Wichita, he said, but is too gracious to just leave. The company is trying something else before making any final decisions.

“They aren’t throwing in the towel, they’re daintily dropping it,” he said.

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Southwest to cut direct flights to Chicago, Dallas, add St. Louis, Phoenix."