One effect of the pandemic's earthquake effect on the airline industry is that while air traffic is down to historic modern lows, smaller airlines, including some of the ultra-low-cost carriers, are expanding into airports they previously had no slots at.
Southwest and JetBlue, hardly midgets in their own right, are shifting route patterns partly to take advantage of short-term opportunities, and partly to gain footholds that may make them long-term players in new markets. Spirit, Allegiant, Frontier and Sun Country are also making moves but in more limited ways.
For the larger airlines, seeing new competitors on their routes is usually not a welcome occasion, but the Big Three are rebuilding their route networks with some caution, not expecting a full recovery for several years; at this point, they are not prepared to fly and hold all their slots with too few passengers.
But they have made sure, first by posting full schedules, and then by getting FAA approval to keep their slots at three key airports—New York's LaGuardia and JFK and Washington Reagan National—that they will not lose any slots there. That's a matter of complaint to airlines such as Spirit that have been knocking on those doors for years.
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