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Originally Posted by travis bickle
The only issue holding up significant expansion from Southwest at SMF is gate space. I have been told this repeatedly by both airport and Southwest people. They run about 85 flights a day now and with 8 gates that is at capacity. A rule of thumb for gate usage is 10 planes max/day/gate.
I have been told that Sacramento could see up to 125 flights/day in the near future with enough gates. That would place it well within Southwest's top ten stations (it's almost there now). With the new terminal, I think we'll see significant expansion from Southwest almost immediately and 125 flights/day by 2013. You have to remember that new flights require more planes and Southwest's delivery schedule wouldn't afford an expansion any more rapidly than that.
Southwest has significantly cutback on their transcon service over the last year, so I don't expect flights to BWI or FL as I once did. But I'd look for increases to Portland/Seattle/Midway/Kansas City/Vegas/Austin/Phoenix/all of the So. Cal. cities, perhaps even Love Field in Dallas if the regulatory hurdles are finally cleared. There is also some talk that Airtran will become more intimately involved with Southwest and would take up some of the long-haul slack. But rather than new cities, I hear that most of the immediate additions would be frequency increases to existing cities.
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That's great news and makes sense. I know everytime i fly to or from SMF, the planes always seem to be full or usually over booked. Southwest owns SMF (like they do Oakland)...
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