Southwest airline discount fare

Southwest top carrier, a first for discount airline

Southwest is No. 1.

Southwest Airlines is the first discount airline to fly the most passengers in the United States in one month, earning the No. 1 spot in May--a designation that historically has gone to carriers such as American, Delta and United.

Southwest, the dominant airline at Midway Airport, flew 6.5 million people in May. That's about 3 percent more than Delta, which flew the second-largest number of people, and American, which came in third place, according to a monthly traffic report by the Bureau of Transportation Services released Tuesday.

The airline flew 38 percent more people than United Airlines. United, which came in fourth with 4.7 million passengers boarded, filed for bankruptcy in December.

Once an underdog in the airline business, 32-year-old Southwest has lured passengers from rivals by expanding flights, offering more direct flights and continuing to offer fares attractive to budget- minded consumers. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, it's been the only major airline to continuously earn a profit.

"Southwest is the gorilla of cheap fares," said Tom Parsons, chief executive officer of bestfares.com, a travel magazine and Web site. "Since Southwest did not cut back after 9/11 and added planes, and since Southwest continued to add planes and to fly more air miles while airlines like American, Delta . . . and United started cutting back on their flights and their capacity, it was probably just a matter of time for Southwest to go over the edge."

Parsons said the "major" airlines had been trying to keep up with Southwest by cutting fares even before the terrorist attacks, which prompted one of the worst slumps in airline history.

Since the attacks, United is one of a few airlines that have proposed starting a low-fare carrier to win back some customers.

Southwest, Parsons argues, always seems to be a few steps ahead of its rivals. He believes business travelers have been lured to Southwest by cheap tickets that don't carry as many restrictions as other airlines impose, simplifying air travel for busy and bargain- minded fliers.

He believes Southwest will likely hang on to that No. 1 spot more often than not.

A year ago, Delta held the No. 1 spot and Southwest was in third place, according to the government survey.

The survey excludes international flights. Southwest, unlike American and United, does not fly internationally.

Though Southwest may be carrying more people, American and United's sales still dominate. Southwest's second quarter sales of $1.5 billion were less than half of American's $4.3 billion and about half of United's $3.1 billion.

Still, Southwest will take its victories where it can get them.

Southwest spokeswoman Christine Turneabe-Connelly said she didn't know how the company would celebrate the news, though it intends to get the word out to employees quickly.

"It's an exciting statistic to hear because . . . most people think of us as a regional carrier or that we're not one of the 'majors,' " she said. "We've been a major for some time."