Southwest Airlines announced a new daily nonstop flight from San Antonio International Airport (SAT) to Kansas City International Airport (MCI) at a Thursday morning press conference. Southwest is the first airline to connect the two cities with a nonstop flight. The service will begin on Nov. 6.
“From an economic development perspective, Kansas City is a great compliment to San Antonio and a direct flight further connects our business communities and visitors,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said.
Both cities emphasize entrepreneurial development and startups, Taylor said, and share similar target industries such as bioscience, healthcare and technology.
In the same breath, Taylor added that the city will continue to push for more nonstop flights, especially to Washington D.C. and Boston.
San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Richard Perez said this nonstop will bring mobility and economic development to San Antonio.
“The San Antonio business community has an itch and we love that Southwest Airlines scratches that itch for us,” Perez said. “That itch is we want to get all around this country to do business. In order for us to do that, we need easy, quick and reasonably (priced) ways to get there. And (Southwest) does that with such style and grace.”
Councilman Joe Krier (D9), whose district includes the airport, said he would continue to push for more direct routes to cities like Lubbock and the Rio Grande Valley within Texas.
“When you’ve made a great sale to one of your long standing customers — and we’ve made a great sale with (Southwest Airlines) on these routes (they’ve) added — the next thing you do is ask them for more business,” Krier said.
The new flight confirms that Southwest Airlines sees San Antonio as a city to invest in, said Aviation Director Tom Jones in a recent email. During such a competitive time for air service, he said he is excited that San Antonio is a part of the company’s expansion.
The airline offers flights based on customer traffic patterns and history, stated Southwest Airlines communication representative Casey Dunn. Statistics showed that many people already fly between San Antonio and Kansas City using a connecting or one-stop flight.
“San Antonio was literally at the cornerstone position of the Texas Triangle, the day Southwest began operations in 1971 and it’s as important to us today as it was on Day One and the mission has not changed,” Dunn stated.
City Council approved extension of the The Air Service Incentive Program during its meeting on Thursday. The new program piggybacks off an existing ordinance passed in November that incentivized both domestic and international airlines to operate out of SAT by reducing operation fees.
The newly approved ordinance expands those incentives, specifically for international routes. It increases marketing incentives and landing fee waivers for a second year up to 50% for eligible international routes. Federal inspection fees, which are usually charged to airlines for processing passengers through airport customer and border protection, will also be waived for one year and up to 50% the following year.
Top Image: A Southwest Airlines plane at the San Antonio International Airport in May 2015. Photo by Scott Ball.
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>>The flights, which are the first nonstops from any airline to connect the two cities, will begin on November 6, 2016.<<
Midwest Express previously offered twice daily nonstops to Kansas City…discontinued 4 or 5 years ago. Prior to that Braniff International and Braniff 2 both offered KC nonstop flights at various times during the 1970s and 80s..
The city’s efforts to secure more non-stop and direct flights in and out the city are appreciated, but offering incentives to acquire routes to destinations like Kansas City seems foolhardy. It looks great on business reports, but of all the places a person would want to travel to, KC can’t be in the the top 50 — or even top 100 — destinations. It would be more desirable to myself, a leisure traveler, to secure multiple airlines offering direct flights to existing non-stop destinations to leverage pricing wars, or to add flights to existing destinations that offer multiple airports to provide destination options. As is, I often catch flights out of Austin, because even with the roundtrip drive, it’s frequently more time and cost efficient.
It would be great to see a deeper dive on the incentives themselves! I’m very curious whether other cities have used similar systems, if the revisions were due to a lack of interest from airlines or an attempt to push one airline “past the goal line”.
It would also be great to know what’s causing people to use AUS. Is it price, flight options, both? How wide spread is the practice?