At long last, Boston has been freed from the grips of legacy carriers. Virgin America just started service to Beantown this month, and tomorrow morning, Southwest Airlines plans to announce that they will be starting flights. Coincidence? Maybe. Great for the everyday passenger? Definitely.
Because with Southwest, comes competition, and with their low fares (read: hedge) driving the market, other carriers are forced to match prices and in many cases, stop gouging. For example, for this blogger to get from Detroit to Boston it often costs more than to get from Detroit to Frankfurt, Germany. Compare that to Chicago or Baltimore, both Southwest cities, where I can often fly for under $150.
Sure, both Baltimore and Chicago (Midway) are hubs for Southwest, but the two gates that will soon operate out of Logan will definitely make the legacies think twice about gouging.
Southwest plans on starting service into Boston Logan this fall, and it can NOT come soon enough. CEO Gary Kelly will announce more details this (Thursday) morning, so stay tuned.