The American low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines has decided to "drop" two of the most important international airports in the United States.
As part of the ongoing optimisation of its network, Southwest Airlines announced in mid-March the complete suspension of all its flights to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and Washington-Dulles (IAD) airports. This suspension will take effect from June 4th.
However, this change does not result in a significant reduction in the overall offer in these two markets. Southwest will continue to serve alternative airports: Chicago Midway (MDW), Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) and Washington Reagan National (DCA).
At Chicago-Midway, Southwest Airlines offers flights to more than 80 cities. The elimination of flights at O'Hare is in fact in response to a recommendation from the FAA, which wants to reduce the number of movements at one of America's largest airports due to its saturation.
Instead of Washington-Dulles, Southwest will offer up to 271 daily combined departures to 79 non-stop destinations from Reagan National (DCA) and Baltimore/Washington International (BWI).
However, there is still a major problem for business travellers from Europe: these airports are not connected to the continent - apart from a few flights to Baltimore - with Southwest effectively eliminating this possibility.
