Will Southwest Airlines at Milwaukee hurt Rockford?

4 comments November 2nd, 2009

Southwest Airlines started service out of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport Sunday, with 12 daily nonstops to five destinations.

What’s interesting is that three of those destinations - Phoenix, Orlando and Tampa - directly compete with routes out of Chicago Rockford International Airport. Could those routes hurt RFD?

Dane County Regional Airport in Madison seems to think so A spokeswoman said Rockford would be affected more than Madison.

“I think we have loyal passengers here and, secondly, Madison tends to support the business market better and Southwest tends to be more of a leisure destination airline,” said Sharon Wisniewski, spokeswoman for the Dane County Regional Airport.

Not sure I really agree with her logic. Southwest primarily a leisure airline? Perhaps in the past, but it’s been moving aggressively to grab business travels, and the airline claimed last year it had more business travelers than any airline. While only one of its current Milwaukee routes competes with a Madison route (Milwaukee-Baltimore vs. Madison-DC), eventually it could add more competing routes to New York, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis … several low-hanging fruit on Madison’s tree. Add to that the “Southwest effect” of lowering fares … with AirTran’s ramp up in Milwaukee, too, that airport is going see some real deals that will nab passengers. I don’t think Madison is so safe.

But what about Rockford? Airport Executive Director Bob O’Brien’s oft-stated goal is to create “Midway 2, northwest of O’Hare.” But with Southwest and AirTran - two airlines O’Brien has targeted - Milwaukee seems to have beaten them to the punch. Can Rockford become “Midway 3″?

Personally, I’ll check out Southwest whenever going to a city they fly to out of Milwaukee, but if it’s a choice between MKE and RFD, I’ll stay here if the price is even remotely close. What about you? Going to feel the LUV?