It's Clear Southwest Plans to Make Newark Into a Major Hub for Flights to a Number of Cities

In a totally unexpected development that was announced yesterday at the time of starting-up service between New York-Newark and Chicago and St. Louis, the big cost-cutting airline, Southwest, revealed that starting June 5, it will also fly between Newark and Baltimore-BWI, Denver, Houston, and Phoenix. Initial one-way fares between Newark and Baltimore-BWI will be $69, dramatically undercutting the cost of shuttle flights between the New York area and Washington, D.C.

The news means that Americans in every region will soon be able to fly to and from virtually every major city within the U.S. on Southwest Airlines. And the prospect for thus enjoying ultra-low transportation costs on domestic trips has thus been greatly enhanced. This past weekend on my Travel Show ( www.wor710.com/arthur-frommer ), I fielded a question from a listener who wished to undertake a complicated, several-stop trip this summer from New York to Albuquerque, Mexico, then to southern California, then from California north to Seattle and back to New York, and I pointed out that such a trip -- hideously expensive using normal carriers -- would now be capable of being made affordably on Southwest. If you'll look at the Southwest route map (at www.southwest.com/html/cs/travel_center/routemap_dyn.html ), and mentally add the new routes from Newark, you'll see that a vast increase in travel options has taken place starting now, and that increase will grow even larger starting June 5.