How Southwest Airlines Looks to Grow in Los Angeles

For years, Los Angeles has considered building a new terminal, just east of Southwest Airlines' Terminal 1, in what is today an airport-owned parking lot. Now it seems it might happen. In an interview last week, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told me airport operator Los Angeles World Airports, or LAWA, is "very serious about it," and said the terminal, if built and awarded to Southwest, could change the scope of the airline's operation. But with competitors also begging for more gates, it's no guarantee Southwest would get the facility, which might be called Terminal 0 or Terminal 1E and could have up to 10 gates. "We haven't been able to grow in L.A. in forever," Kelly said. "To their credit, LAWA wants to keep the balance of competition healthy. If we are unable to grow and competitors are growing in other terminals, that's not good. So yes, I think that certainly we have a good argument for why we would be able to utilize those additional gates." Kelly and I were speaking in Sou