Southwest Airlines says it’s ready to grow with Las Vegas

By Richard N. Velotta

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010 | 8:11 p.m.

Southwest Airlines’ top executive says the airline is in a position to grow in Las Vegas as the economy gets better but stopped short of promising new flights to McCarran International Airport.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, in Las Vegas Monday to congratulate local employees for winning the company’s 2009 Spirit Week competition, said he was well aware that his arrival coincided with competitor US Airways’ closure of its pilot and flight attendant bases at McCarran and said his airline — McCarran’s busiest — doesn’t take Las Vegas for granted.

“I’m very aware (of US Airways’ downsizing) and we’ve been monitoring those developments very carefully,” Kelly said in an interview prior to his appearance before local employees. “Of course, our competition has been gradually reducing flights over a period of years, and we’ve long since been the largest carrier here in Las Vegas.”

Southwest moved quickly to add flights in St. Louis when American Airlines dropped service at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Weeks ago, Southwest announced it would add six flights to Las Vegas in its late summer schedule.

“We desire to grow. We think we have the financial health and the right business model to continue growing,” Kelly said. “Hopefully as the economy improves, as traffic returns, we’ll be in a real good position to help Las Vegas grow. We’ve got airplanes on order and optioned into the future, and certainly that’s our desire.”

Kelly also referenced US Airways’ downsizing in his brief address to employees.

After thanking McCarran executives Randall Walker and Rosemary Vassiliadis for their support, Kelly said, “Don’t worry. If our competitors drop their flights, we’ll be here for you.”

US Airways has been downsizing its Las Vegas operation, especially in the last two years, paring what once was a 140-daily-flight operation about a decade ago to 36 daily flights by the end of February.

The airline is focusing its strategy on a model that emphasizes its three hub airports at Phoenix, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., and its East Coast shuttle operation and fewer point-to-point flights between other airports.

Despite a protest by Las Vegas-based US Airways pilots, the airline progressed with plans to close the pilot and flight attendant bases Sunday.

Las Vegas is Southwest’s largest station, with an average 217 daily nonstop flights to 56 cities and connecting service to 11 more — all but one of the destinations the airline serves.

The airline uses 19 gates at McCarran and 2,644 employees are based here, including more than 1,000 pilots and flight attendants and 720 people in ground operations.

While Southwest isn’t offering a large bundle of new flights to McCarran, it will give Las Vegas a big economic boost in May.

Kelly announced to local employees that the company’s annual Spirit Day celebration would be in Las Vegas on May 12. The company has contracted with the Golden Nugget to host the event.

Last year’s Spirit Day celebration brought about 9,000 employees, most of them from out of town, to downtown Las Vegas for a party celebrating the company culture.

Corporate culture is important to Southwest, and 2009’s first-ever Spirit Week competition was a part of that.

Sunny Abercrombie, senior director of culture services for Southwest in Dallas, said Las Vegas employees were creative in their efforts to deliver customer service, wearing retro Southwest uniforms one day and celebrating ‘80s Day, Hearts Day and International Day during the week of inter-station competition in September.

“We get a lot of great support from our management, and I think that affects how we approach our jobs,” Abercrombie said.

Southwest adopted a new theme — “Own it,” as in owning customer service, on-time performance and corporate culture — and employees wore red “Own it” T-shirts to celebrate their victory.

In addition to winning bragging rights within the company, the Las Vegas station received a specially painted aircraft push-back tug as a trophy.