Southwest Airlines celebrates 25 years serving Manchester

Mike Cote, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
·2 min read

Jun. 7—Southwest Airlines celebrates its 25th year serving Manchester-Boston Regional Airport with a bit less wind beneath its wings as flights remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Airport Director Ted Kitchens is thankful the airline continues to operate here.

"Over the past 25 years, we've had plenty of challenges, but there's been one constant: That's been our friends at Southwest Airlines being a calm, steady reassuring force through 9/11, the Great Recession and just most recently the pandemic," Kitchens said during a small gathering Wednesday at Gate 12 that included Southwest employees, Mayor Joyce Craig and a captive audience of people waiting to board a flight to Baltimore.

Since 1998, Southwest has operated 150,000 departures from Manchester and served 16 million passengers, the airline says. It's long been the airport's dominant carrier.

Charline Spaulding, who lives in Pepperell, Mass., was among the passengers waiting to board the 9:15 a.m. flight.

Since her children moved to Maryland, Spaulding flies Southwest from Manchester about three times a year.

"I have done Boston, but I prefer here," she said.

That's the kind of story Kitchens likes to hear. Convincing travelers to choose Manchester over Boston — if you book at least eight weeks out the prices are comparable, he says — is a constant challenge.

A challenge he hopes is temporary is the reduced number of Southwest flights at MHT.

"I think it's mostly a crew and aircraft availability issue," Kitchens said. "The pilot shortage is really hurting communities like Manchester because they have limited crews and limited crew time. And they're having to allocate those to markets that are bigger than us right now."

Justin Fox, regional manager of airport affairs for Southwest, acknowledged those challenges but was optimistic.

"Obviously with COVID and the pandemic, it's been tough. And with aircraft deliveries, that's also been a challenge," Fox said. "As we continue to accept and obtain more aircraft, and have the ability to add capacity, I'm sure working with Ted we will figure out a way in the future to get back to some pre-pandemic level activity."

Southwest currently offers up to eight daily flights from Manchester to Baltimore, Chicago, Orlando and Tampa. Last year, the airline flew 600,000 passengers to and from MHT.

"If there was a demand problem we'd have a much harder sell," Kitchens said. "It really is a capacity problem and their ability to fly what they want to fly and the levels that they want to fly. I think that's hurting all airlines, not just Southwest."

Mike Cote is senior editor for news and business. Contact him at mcote@unionleader.com or 206-7724.