Thursday, April 16, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.
Dave Ridley, Southwest Airlines' vice president of marketing and sales, was genuinely stunned by one analyst's theory of what ails Las Vegas.
If airlines can make more money in business centers and are taking their planes out of leisure markets like Las Vegas, maybe locals should tolerate higher air fares for the good of the economy. Follow that thesis to its logical conclusion and one might conclude that Southwest Airlines is to blame for the slump at McCarran International Airport.
After all, Department of Transportation statistics show Las Vegas to be the least expensive market in the nation from which to fly. Southwest, the industry's discount king, is the airport's largest carrier with about 140 flights a day. Las Vegans are spoiled by having the most affordable air fares in the nation.
And isn't Southwest responsible for saturating the market with short-haul flights when what Las Vegas needs are more long hauls?
"Because Southwest is the dominant carrier we're somehow cutting off other carriers' interests?" Ridley asked. "I'm sorry, I can't make that leap."
No matter. It came from an analyst thinking out loud, trying to make sense of an industry that frequently defies all logic. It's an industry that can't explain why it costs more to fly from Las Vegas to Dallas than to Orlando or why a one-way ticket is more expensive than a round trip to the same destination.
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., hopes to learn more about the workings of the airline industry and how it affects Nevada's resort industry today when he conducts a hearing for the Senate Commerce Committee at 9:30 a.m. at the Si Redd Room in the Thomas & Mack Center.
Bryan has invited airlines, the resort industry, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, McCarran officials, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Development Authority to testify on air service to Las Vegas.
So what's on Southwest's agenda and where does it fit in the complicated McCarran air dilemma puzzle?
First, Southwest is one of the few airlines to commit to more gates when McCarran's D Concourse opens in June. It won't take residence in the new terminal, but will spread out in the C Concourse when United and American move down the alphabet and across the tarmac.
Southwest plans to move into four gates immediately and have four more available for the future. It currently occupies 12.
"With 12 gates and 140 flights a day, we're working about 12 flights a day from each of our gates," Ridley said. "That's phenomenal utilization. Once you get past nine or 10 a day, you have to consider the creation of customer inconvenience."
So, the four new gates will give Southwest some breathing room. And the four in reserve?
"Our commitment to 20 gates is a good signal to Las Vegas that Southwest Airlines isn't through here yet," Ridley said.
Southwest's latest flight expansion in Las Vegas raised a few eyebrows. With some planes available on Saturday, the company announced new nonstop service between Las Vegas and Oklahoma City, Okla.; Spokane, Wash.; and New Orleans on Saturdays only.
Saturday? People don't travel to Las Vegas on Saturdays, do they?
"We've been pleasantly surprised by our advanced bookings on those flights," Ridley said of the flights that began over the last weekend.
Any other new flights on the horizon?
Southwest is focusing its growth strategy in the Southeast and on the East Coast for now. It recently announced it would begin service to Manchester, N.H. The airline has been growing its Florida destinations and last year, it added Jackson, Miss., to its route map.
The airline's biggest problem has been securing aircraft. It has 140 Boeing 737s on order or as options for the next eight years. It picked up some jets from Western Pacific Airlines when that company filed for bankruptcy last year.
So there's nothing immediately planned for Las Vegas.
Las Vegas needs greater access to the East Coast. Would Southwest consider some longer range flights to pull in that market?
"Our planning strategy sometimes seems like 'Ready ... fire ... aim,"' Ridley said. "The spontaneous things sometimes work better than the things we've thoroughly analyzed. Having said that, I'll tell you that we don't like to say we'd never do something. Clearly, Southwest has tried some new scheduling things recently."
Aircraft range limits some long flight potential. Some of the older 737s in Southwest's fleet don't have coast-to-coast range. But some of the newer more fuel-efficient planes can make longer runs.
Southwest's longest flight out of Las Vegas is to Nashville, Tenn. From there, passengers can connect to Florida or the East Coast. The company also is initiating two new routes that make a giant X across the United States -- from Baltimore to Los Angeles and from Portland, Ore., to Orlando, Fla. -- both with stops in Kansas City, Mo.
So, while it's not impossible for Southwest to initiate longer flights, the message is don't count on anything right away.
So what is Southwest doing to help fill Las Vegas' hotel rooms?
Because it isn't broadly marketed in Las Vegas, Southwest's vacation packaging isn't well known to locals. Ridley said Southwest's packaging partner, Mark Travel Co. of Milwaukee, fills 5,000 Las Vegas hotel rooms a night.
"It's a great partnership relationship we have with them (Mark Travel)," Ridley said. "We co-market packages with them, price our seats favorably to them and they put together a room and car-rental package."
Ridley said the partnership has vacation packages in other U.S. cities, but more than half of the total are sold in Las Vegas.
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