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After a two-year hiatus, a favorite guessing game in the airline business is on again: Where will Southwest Airlines land next?
The low-fare giant enjoyed explosive growth through the '90s, expanding from its Midwest and West Coast base throughout the East. In 1996 alone, Southwest jumped into Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Providence, R.I.
That binge ground to a halt soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused a steep decline in air travel. But Southwest is back on an aggressive growth spurt and will announce flights to a new city in the coming weeks.
There's no shortage of candidates. Typically, more than 100 cities at a given time are lobbying Southwest for service, especially ones dominated by a big airline charging outrageous fares.
Southwest doesn't generally like big hub airports or cities with congested airspace that keep it from getting planes in and out quickly. That makes New York's Big Three airports an unlikely choice. And a city has to be big enough to support multiple flights.
Speculation is running hot and heavy on aviation-related bulletin boards on the Internet. Among Florida cities, Fort Myers and Tallahassee get frequent mention, although the state capital tends to be slow when the Legislature is out of session.
Southwest mentioned Richmond, Va., as a contender when it chose Norfolk as its last new city in 2001. Other frequent guesses are Philadelphia or nearby Allentown, Pa.; Boston (although Southwest flies to Providence and Manchester, N.H.); Trenton, N.J., and Newburgh, N.Y. (on the fringes of New York City); and Pittsburgh, where US Airways has cut back flights.