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Salt Lake City Airport set for $2 billion makeover
TransportMountain views, faster takeoffs and workout equipment are a few things Salt Lake City officials are considering as they draw up plans for a nearly $2 billion remake of the city’s airport. The bulk of the budget for construction comes from fees airlines pay to use the facility and from passengers buying tickets, among a [...]
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Southwest increases dividend and revises aircraft orders
TransportSouthwest Airlines Co. on Wednesday announced a boost in its dividend and its share repurchase program and said it is changing some plane orders and deliveries. The discounter said its board boosted the quarterly dividend to 4 cents a share from 1 cent a share, to begin with the payment on June 26 to shareholders [...]
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Jilted airport disses Southwest Airlines but now engages in sweet-talk
TransportSarasota-Bradenton International Airport is keeping an open dialogue with Southwest Airlines despite its marketing encouraging travelers to not fly with the carrier. Rick Piccolo, president and chief executive officer of the airport, told his Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority board Monday morning that the two sides are talking again. “We reinstituted contact with them, all we’re [...]
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Southwest’s international ambitions: Largest domestic carrier goes global for first time
TransportSouthwest Airlines, the carrier that promotes itself in its current and controversial advertising campaign as “America’s largest domestic airline,” is about to get undomesticated. Last month, Southwest kicked off daily service from Orlando and Tampa to San Juan, its first flights outside the continental U.S. These flights supplement subsidiary AirTran’s existing service from Baltimore/Washington, Atlanta, [...]
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Airline capacity reductions felt across U.S. cities
TransportAirlines survived $147-a-barrel oil, a financial collapse on Wall Street, and a recession in 2008 by doing two things: slashing capacity — fewer flights, different-size aircrafts, recalibrated routes — and charging annoying fees for everything from baggage to “choice” seats. Nationwide, there are 8 percent fewer airplane seats with passengers in them than five years [...]
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Southwest apologizes to passenger hassled for being overweight
TransportA man claims he was asked to disembark a Southwest Airlines aircraft for being overweight. Matthew Harper, who weighs about 24 stone (154 kg), was reportedly asked to step off the flight from Chicago to Denver after being told it was overbooked. He alleged a cabin crew member asked whether the 34-year-old was aware of [...]
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Southwest CEO: Nevermind naysayers, we won’t change two-bags free policy
TransportIt isn’t often that an airline CEO takes 10 minutes or so during a conference call about first quarter financial results to defend one of the carrier’s advertising campaigns, but that’s what Southwest CEO Gary Kelly did today. Taking several questions from financial analysts about Southwest’s Spring campaign, which debuted in March, Kelly acknowledged that [...]
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Southwest improves first quarter profit and readies for a showdown with Delta
TransportWhen you exclude favorable special items over the last two years, Southwest improved its first quarter profits in 2013. It also clearly signalled it was ready to take on Delta for a larger piece of Atlanta and implement a previously announced no-show policy. Southwest’s net income for the first quarter of 2013 was $59 million, [...]
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Southwest Airlines makes San Juan debut
TransportThe first Southwest Airlines flight to Puerto Rico arrived at San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport on Sunday morning. The flight out of Orlando arrived in San Juan at 10:40 AM, met by a delegation including Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla.
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Southwest CEO’s compensation rose 15 percent to $4 million in 2012
TransportThe CEO of Southwest Airlines received $4 million in compensation for 2012, up 15 percent from the prior year, largely because of bigger stock awards. The airline said in a regulatory filing on Friday that Gary Kelly, who is also the company’s chairman, was paid a salary of $675,000 and a $961,000 bonus last year, [...]
