AP: Southwest luvs Midway

[question everything]

Southwest luvs Midway

Chicago site remains on track to be airline's No. 1 airport

By Dave Carpenter
ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 22, 2005

CHICAGO – Southwest Airlines officials say they're committed to expansion that could soon make Chicago Midway International Airport the carrier's busiest, plans unchanged by the airline's first fatal accident there this month.

Two years of adding gates and flights have made Midway the fastest-growing airport for Southwest, providing a strengthened base to compete with bigger rivals flying out of O'Hare International Airport across town.

Midway has surpassed Baltimore-Washington and tied Phoenix this year as Southwest's No. 2 airport with 196 daily departures. According to a recent Citigroup report, it is expected to overtake Las Vegas to become the Dallas-based carrier's largest airport by 2007.

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Southwest (ticker symbol LUV) now controls 29 of the 43 gates at Midway, up from 19 a year ago as a result of deals made with ATA Holdings Corp., the bankrupt parent of fast-shrinking ATA Airlines.

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The one-square-mile airport, located 8 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, was built in 1923 and is hemmed in by dense neighborhoods. It had gone since 1972 without a fatal accident. Southwest's customers appear to have taken the rare accident in stride. The airline analyzed bookings since the accident and concluded there was no significant impact, Rutherford said. Businesswise, Midway's location makes Southwest's continuing expansion a sound strategy.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051222/news_1b22midway.html

[adarling]

1. Dad works for Southwest

accident was horrible, but the company is a good one. used to work at JC Penneys for 20 years as a buyer. miserable and now at Southwest, he loves it. We need more low price carriers though.