Southwest, AirTran trim Tampa schedules

Southwest Airlines will trim 12 weekday flights from its Tampa International Airport summer schedule on Aug. 12 and discontinue Milwaukee and Jacksonville as destinations.

No airline would serve the Tampa-Jacksonville route unless another carrier fills in.

AirTran Airways will eliminate one of its two Tampa-San Juan flights and a Tampa-Rochester, N.Y., flight, also on Aug. 12.

The revisions reflect a major nationwide schedule alignment involving Southwest's acquisition of AirTran and customary schedule changes after the peak summer travel period.

"We continue to work toward the integration of the two airlines," Southwest spokeswoman Christi McNeill said. "The final transition could take several years."

Southwest is expected to obtain its federal "single operating certificate" by the end of March for the deal that was consummated May 2.

Southwest will remain Tampa International's busiest airline, a distinction that will grow despite the current round of schedule reductions once Southwest and AirTran are fully merged.

Southwest will trim single weekday flights between Tampa and Baltimore/Washington; Buffalo, N.Y.; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Hartford, Conn.; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; Manchester, N.H.; and Philadelphia. Each of those destinations retain at least one Southwest nonstop flight from Tampa.

Southwest also will increase Tampa-Fort Lauderdale flights from six to seven a day.

In addition to the August changes, AirTran will eliminate its Tampa-Flint, Mich., and Tampa-Grand Rapids, Mich., seasonal nonstop service.

"Conversion, network harmonization, market changes and a smaller schedule that reflects the normal customer demand changes coming out of what looks like a very busy summer — our August and September schedules have it all," Southwest official Bill Owen said on a Southwest blog.

Southwest currently schedules 70 daily departures from Tampa to 30 destinations. AirTran schedules 20 daily departures from Tampa to 11 destinations.

Southwest in its August schedules will trim systemwide weekday departures from a summer high of 3,422 to 3,250, while AirTran will decrease daily departures from 680 on a typical Friday to 568, Owen said.

The Baltimore, Chicago and Orlando airports took especially harsh hits from cuts, while Seattle on Aug. 12 becomes the first airport to be fully converted to Southwest-only flights.

"Just like in the Southwest schedule, Air Tran's new schedule reflects the seasonal softening of customer demand as well as the need to 'free up' aircraft to go through the conversion process," Owen said.