As today's column says, Southwest Airlines' proposed takeover of AirTran has a lot of downside for BWI Marshall airport. The deal, unless the Justice Department requests changes, would give Southwest a 70-percent market share at BWI and a local monopoly on most of its direct flights.
However, here's the possible positive news. BWI's biggest drawback is its lack of international flights. You basically have to drive to Dulles if you want to fly overseas anywhere but London and the Caribbean. Southwest has been talking about getting into international but hasn't done it. If it were to do so, BWI would be the logical place to start. With a million domestic BWI flights, Southwest could easily route flyers overseas and back through its own system through BWI.
AirTran has a few international routes, and on Monday Southwest boss Gary Kelly said Southwest hoped to take advantage of the experience to perhaps expand the combined company's international offerings, once Southwest overhauls its reservation software. Here's Kelly on the conference call:
