Southwest Airlines adds to gains in Fresno CA air travel

Within about a month of entering service at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, Southwest Airlines has already carved out a significant bite of market share among Valley travelers — bolstering a recovery of the air travel market from a disastrous, pandemic-stricken 2020.

After launching its schedule of flights to and from Fresno in late April, this past May was Southwest’s first full month of flights to Las Vegas and Denver. In that month, Southwest carried the third-largest number of passengers aboard its departing flights among all other carriers at FYI, behind SkyWest Airlines and mainline flights by American Airlines.

May is the most recent month for which detailed travel statistics are available from the U.S. Department of Transportation. In that month, Southwest carried 12,759 departing passengers in May, or about 16% of the 78,012 airline passengers who flew from Fresno during the month.

SkyWest Airlines was the top-ranked carrier in the Fresno market in May, thanks to its operation of flights under the American Eagle, AlaskaSkyWest, Delta Connection and United Express brands. In total, SkyWest carried more than 34,400 passengers in May under its network partnerships with the major airlines.

American Airlines, with its own mainline flights to Dallas, Phoenix and Chicago, was second in the Fresno market with almost 16,400 passengers.

“The regional response to our arrival in Fresno is exactly what we hoped when bringing our service in the largest air market in California previously not served by Southwest,” said Brad Hawkins, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines.

“We anticipate the summer data, once public, will underscore signs of an initial trend of an appreciation in Fresno for our low-fare, high-value air service.”

Other performance indicators

Statewide, Southwest is the largest airline in California by passenger volume.

May also saw Southwest leapfrog other established carriers to offer the second-largest number of available flights to and from Fresno in the month, behind only SkyWest, whose airline partnerships with United Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines have historically made up the lion’s share of available flights.

SkyWest flew 681 flights out of Fresno in May, about 63% of all departures that month, while the 124 flights by Southwest accounted for just over 11% of the volume – ahead of mainline flights offered by American and United, Horizon Air’s flights for its sister Alaska Airlines, as well as competing low-cost carriers Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines.

Southwest Airlines’ load factor for its departing Fresno flights – the percentage of all seats that were filled on its aircraft – was just over 70% in May, compared to the overall load factor of almost 82% among all airlines’ flights from Fresno.

Notably, May also was a record month at Fresno Yosemite International Airport – not only for this year to that point, but all time. The 78,012 departing passengers that month beat even the pre-pandemic high-water month of just under 77,600 in July 2019.

June looks to have been even better, according to the airport’s figures – almost 95,500 passengers on domestic flights, the airport reported.

From January through June 2021, Fresno’s airport saw more than 333,600 passengers departing on domestic flights. That’s up more than 68% compared to the first six months of 2020, in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s an indicator of a continuing recovery of air transportation, including a release of pent-up demand among passengers for resuming travel for business and for pleasure, even as the COVID-19 pandemic persists in the U.S. and around the world.

Southwest CEO Gary C. Kelly credited the rebound of leisure travel as a major factor in the company reporting a profit in the second quarter of 2021, after the entire airline industry was decimated by the pandemic in 2020.

“Second quarter 2021 marked an important milestone in the pandemic recovery as leisure travel demand surged,” Kelly said. For the airline, “leisure passenger traffic in June 2021 rebounded above June 2019 levels, while passenger fares were comparable with June 2019.”

SkyWest also reported a profit in the second quarter of 2021. “We are pleased to see continued demand improvement and look forward to returning to pre-COVID levels by the beginning of 2022,” SkyWest CEO Chip Childs said in the company’s July financial update.

Some other airlines saw improvement in their income pictures compared to last year, but have yet to return to pre-pandemic profitability.

Southwest officials earlier this year said the pandemic presented them with an opportunity to expand into new markets, including Fresno and 20 other cities, rather than having aircraft sitting idle because of the coronavirus-driven drop-off in passenger demand last year.

“Headed out of summer, how local travelers (in the Fresno and San Joaquin Valley market) embrace Southwest is even more meaningful with regard to how we view our opportunities for expansion and growth,” Southwest’s Hawkins told The Bee.

The more people fly on the airline moving forward, the greater the potential for the airline to consider adding more nonstop flights and destinations to the Fresno market, he added.

“Our next chapter will be about accepting aircraft already on order to build depth in the markets where we are seeing success, (both) current and potential,” Hawkins said.