Southwest pulling out of Key West on June 7

BY JOHN L. GUERRA

NEWS WRITER

Southwest Airlines will end its service to Key West International Airport on June 7, a puzzler in the midst of the busiest commercial passenger year in recent history.

But Peter Horton, director of airports in Monroe County, said other airlines will pick up the slack as the airport enjoys its busiest year to date.

“Though Southwest is leaving us, the other airlines are ramping up,” Horton told Konk Life Friday. “USAIR is still a stronghold for us, flying tourists into Key West on their 737s. They routinely end their seasonal flights the first week of each April, when tourist season slows, but this year they’ve extended flights until the end of April.”

Not only that, Horton said, Delta Airlines has increased its 737 flights to Key West, including a nonstop flight between Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C..

The airline’s non-stop flight from Key West to LaGuardia Airport in New York City that was once seasonal — running December through March — has been extended until the end of September, he said.

In addition, United Airlines has committed to code sharing with JetBlue, which helps fill seats that otherwise might be empty. Code sharing is a business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code.

Silver Airlines, which bought out Gulfstream Airways last year, replaced Gulfstream’s 19-seat aircraft with bigger, Saab 340s, which carry 34 passengers, Horton said. Silver provides service to Fort Meyers, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa and may add another city soon, Horton said. The larger aircraft will pick up some of the slack left by Southwest’s abandoning of Key West.

All these changes are happening as the number of tourists arriving by air is up by 11.7 percent from the same two months last year, Horton said.

“The airport received 156,148 air passengers in January and February,” Horton said. “Last January and February, we saw 139,830 passengers. And last year was the busiest ever, he said.

The airport saw 790,654 air passengers arrive at its airport in 2013, he said.

 

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