Some 11 years ago, Southwest Airlines sparked the evolution of Baltimore-Washington International Airport into a low-cost hub, and that transformation will be completed in the spring when the airport opens a new terminal for the carrier that will be larger than any of Southwest's others in the nation.
The terminal is part of a $1.8 billion renovation and expansion that will largely be completed in 2005. Analysts and airport officials say it will show the power of the discount carriers to provide stability and even growth during a financially turbulent time for airlines.
"This puts [BWI] in really good shape," said Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co. Inc., an airline industry analysis and consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y. "BWI will be a fast-growing portion of the national network, far in excess of National Airport and even should be higher than ... Dulles."
Mann said BWI is ahead of the curve in the move to low-cost dominance as many other airports struggle to replace shrinking service from high-cost traditional carriers, which have lost billions of dollars since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The discount airlines - including Southwest, the largest - continue to gain business as passengers have returned to the skies and now control over a quarter of the market.
Southwest and other discounters also could benefit from the air travel debacles over the Christmas holiday. Computer troubles forced Comair, a regional jet affiliate of Delta Air Lines, to cancel all its flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. At US Airways, baggage handlers at Philadelphia International Airport and flight attendants systemwide called in sick, helping to ground flights and separate passengers from their luggage - some through the week.
Analysts said the widespread news coverage and images of stranded passengers and mounds of lost luggage could make many travelers leery of booking teetering carriers. And the fiasco at US Airways could spell the end of an airline in bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years.
That could help Southwest grow in other cities such as Philadelphia, where US Airways maintains a large hub. Southwest had already planned to expand there, having solidified its position in Baltimore with 47 percent of the market and, after winning a bitter fight with discount carrier AirTran for gates at Midway Airport, in Chicago as well.
