DALLAS --
Southwest will begin selling some ATA-only flights through
Southwests Web site and call centers under an amended code-share
agreement the two carriers expect to implement in the first quarter
of 2006.
For example, a
customer visiting Southwest.com will be able to book an ATA seat on
an ATA flight between Chicago (Midway) and New York
(LaGuardia).
Under the current
arrangement, the only ATA-related bookings done by Southwest are
when a customer books a Southwest-coded seat on an ATA
flight.
Southwest has
never sold another airlines seats on its Web site before, but it
will get some benefit other than boosting the revenue of its
code-share partner. ATA will pay Southwest a commission for each
booking, according to Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart.
The amended
code-share agreement will also let Southwest customers use their
Rapid Rewards credits for seats on some ATA flights and will let
ATA grant Rapid Rewards credits to its customers.
The amendment is
part of ATAs restructuring under bankruptcy, under which ATA has
been cutting its scheduled service dramatically. ATA is pulling out
of Indianapolis in January, and its Chicago operations have been
scaled back so much it now only needs one Midway gate instead of
eight (Southwest will get four of them, and three will go to the
City of Chicago).
But ATA said it
expects to maintain its schedule from Chicago to New York and
Washingtons Reagan National, anticipating sales will increase when
the services become bookable via Southwests distribution
channels.
ATA also plans to
increase its service to Hawaii and all but eliminate its already
declining reliance on tour operators to sell some of those seats.
ATA said it can do that, in part, because Southwest customers are
connecting to ATAs Phoenix-Hawaii and Las Vegas-Hawaii flights via
code-sharing, and by downsizing the service from 757 aircraft that
can seat up to 247 people to 737s that seat 160 in a two-class
configuration.
ATA also is
expecting that Southwests sales support will increase the bookings
on its Hawaii flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, even
though Southwest customers cannot connect to those
routes.
ATAs new business
plan, part of its effort to emerge from Chapter 11 by the end of
February, calls for greater reliance on its military charter
business.
Military charters
historically have generated a third of ATAs revenue, but the
airline projects it will account for 52% in 2006. ATA, however,
said it expects the military charter percentage to decline after
next year, as it rebuilds its scheduled service.
To contact
reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].