Southwest Goes Head-to-Head with Delta in Nashville

Southwest has Georgia on its mind… At least thats what Trevor Stedke (the airline’s Vice President of Technical Services) asserted today at the Nashville International Airport during Southwest’s new route announcement.

Specifically, Southwest Airlines announced that it will launch 5x daily flights between Nashville and Atlanta starting August 7th, 2018. The route will reduce to 3x daily on Saturdays and Sundays.

Before we dissect this new route I wanted to highlight some of the interesting quotes from today’s announcement. The full video can be seen here, although its 17 minutes so I just pulled some of the more interesting quotes from Southwest’s V.P. of Technical Services (below).

We have listened to you, as well as our Nashville tourism and business leaders, who for years have told us that they are tired of high fares; tired of bag fees and change fees between Nashville and Atlanta.

He continued…

No longer will you be faced with outrageous prices on such a short flight, and of course the fees that other airlines charge for those flights.

Talk about coming out of the gates HOT! At least they understand that this route will be an all out war with Delta. Although, I am not underestimating Southwest here. This is their bread and butter. While the rest of the industry keeps devaluating levels of service (basic economy), WN stays consistent. No checked baggage fees. No change fees. Cheap tickets. If I worked for Southwest, those would probably be the first words out of my mouth too.

Nashville to Atlanta is a WHOPPING 214 miles. As a result, airlines like Delta can focus on frequency and a schedule conducive to business travel. Currently, DL is the only airline to operate this route non-stop. With a quick reference to google flights, I can ascertain that they offer 11x daily mainline flights during the week. The key word here is mainline. Given the high frequency, I find it pretty impressive that they are able to offer an all-mainline service on such a short route. Despite this steep competition, Southwest is coming in guns-blazing.

Right from the start, WN will offer roughly 45% of Delta’s total flights between Nashville and Atlanta. To me, that seems pretty bold. I wouldn’t be surprised if this route was reduced by a daily frequency by early 2019. Then again, Southwest has a very strong consumer base. They may not be the corporate travelers airline of choice, but they absolutely know and dominate their target market.

Low fares. No ridiculous fees. Convenient flights. That seems like as good a recipe as any to beat Delta in Atlanta.