Lehigh Southwest Why Southwest Should Come to Lehigh

Lehigh Valley International Airport is located in the heart of Pennsylvania's third largest metropolitan area, after Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and is far and away the most convenient regular scheduled-service airport for millions of Pennsylvanians (DOT, 2012). In addition, the airport is located in the proximity of many attractions as well as business destinations, making it an important hub for travel even for those that are not residents of the areas (DOT, 2012). Service increases to the airport through the entrance of new airlines and/or the expansion of existing airlines that include the Lehigh Valley International Airport in their routes would further increase the convenience and the usefulness of this airport for travelers, and this increase in airport traffic would be good for a number of businesses located in and within the vicinity of the airport (DOT, 2012; Zanki, 2010).

Southwest Airlines has long shied away from making a move to include Lehigh Valley International Airport in its routes and service provision despite being regularly courted by airport executives (Zanki, 2010; Assad, 2012). The airline's relatively acquisition of the smaller discount flyer AirTran seemed to carry a promise to change this state of affairs, AirTran already operates out of Lehigh Valley International...

This appeared to be precisely what was going to happen for well over a year, and yet recently Southwest made the preliminary decision to terminate AirTran's contract with the airport and to discontinue services at Lehigh Valley (Zanki, 2010; Assad, 2012).
There are definitely valid reasons for Southwest's hesitancy to provide service at the airport, and it would not be fair to expect the airline to engage in a contract that would not be profitable for the company. While a contract with Lehigh Valley International Airport would provide new routes and non-stop destinations (or points of departure) for those utilizing the airport, it is also true that the airport is less than a two-hours' drive from two other major airports, Newark and Philadelphia, and thus the airport can be seen as redundant by some entities and travelers (DOT, 2012). If more travelers will be utilizing routes that terminate in Philadelphia and Newark, Southwest might not see a need or an advantage to including routes that terminate at Lehigh Valley International airport in addition, as the fewer flights and destinations the company needs to operate in order to meet consumer demand for specific travel times and stops, the more efficient the…