I would have said the same thing until I flew back from Spokane (GEG) this past weekend. Every flight out of GEG was booked full yet GEG is not that large of a city. The reason is because people will drive hours to get to a WN city. If you look at a map of Montana, Butte is within 2-3 hours driving time of most major cities in Montana. Cheyenne (CYS) is about 100 miles from Denver while COS is 70 miles. There's more population to draw from south of Denver but, given WN's propensity to develop markets, CYS could develop into a good station. Also, CYS was a city on the original transcontinental route due to its lower altitude than DEN. Montana has more people than Alaska and Wyoming. It ranks 44 in population among the states. Alaska ranks 48th and Wyoming is last. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Schnell" <dks28@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 18:38 Subject: Re: [AIRLINE] WN at DEN Montana? Wyoming? More people live in Alaska than in Wyoming. I would be shocked to see SWA start service to any of these areas. The demand simply isn't there. Colorado Springs is always a possibility, if only because people are somewhat accustomed to driving there from the WestPac days. United's new LCC at DIA could weigh against a SWA operation of any sort, though. Macon has been rumored before, but I'm not sure Southwest particularly wants to get into the ATL market and have to fight both Delta and AirTran. The southeast has been SWA's growth area for the past five to ten years. I'd say Charleston is the most likely of the listed cities. David R http://home.attbi.com/~damiross http://home.attbi.com/~damiross/books.html -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of damiross2@xxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 6:22 PM To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: WN at DEN It's been many years since WN served DEN. Along with BPT (Beaumont, TX), DET (Detroit City), and SFO, it's one of the very few airports it has stopped flying to. Anyone want to start guessing at the city WN will start serving next year. They are adding a city, or so I gather from an article I read on WN, next year. Over 100 cities have requested WN service; here's my guess. Looking at the map of cities already served, I'm saying the new city will be in the major blank space - someplace in the Upper Midwest, Northern Rockies, or South Carolina/Georgia area. In no particular order, I would say it would be one of the following cities: MSP (big bad NWA dominates here, bringing high fares) BIL (Billings, MT) GTF (Great Falls, MT) CYS (Cheyenne, WY - not too far from DEN) COS (same reason as CYS) PUB (same reason as CYS) MCN (Macon, GA - not too far from ATL) CHS (Charleston, SC) David R > Hello everyone. > > Just chatting with a friend from DEN and he tells me WN is rumored to > be starting service to COS in the not-so-distant future. Anyone heard > anything on this? > > Also, I mentioned to him that WN used to serve DEN, but pulled out > because Stapleton was hurting their on-time performance. (At least > that's what I remember the story to be....) now they won't be starting > up service to DEN because it's too expensive to operate there. How > long ago did they serve DEN and when did they pull out? > > Clay - SEA