Southwest has agreed to lease 18 take-off/landing slot pairs at Newark Airport from United and Continental. The deal is a function of the CO-UA merger, which, if it were approved without conditions, would solidify Continental’s grip on Newark.
Bringing Southwest into Newark is a big deal. Southwest hasn’t flown to a New York airport yet (correction: they have had flights from LGA to Chicago and Baltimore since June 2009… sorry about that!) — and no, their flights to Islip, NY are not New York City. It’s a major move into a huge market, and it’s to Newark, which is arguably the easiest and most convenient airport to access from Manhattan, despite being in New Jersey.
Especially if it goes above and beyond these initial slots, Southwest’s presence will mean lower fares at all the NYC airports, so New Yorkers can look forward to the greater competition.
No word yet on the specific routes Southwest will fly out of Newark, once it starts up.
Update: Just hours after the announcement related to Newark slots, United and Continental received clearance from the US Dept of Justice, paving the way for the finalization of their merger. Stockholder approval is still required, but the two airlines are expected to be merged into one company by October 1, 2010. Ta-daaaa.
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
August 27th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
> Southwest hasn’t flown to a New York airport yet…
Don’t they fly into Laguardia?
August 27th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
yeah 5 times a day from midway and 3 times a day from BWI
August 27th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Doh! My error. Corrected above. Thanks for catching that, twothirds and jared… mea culpa.
August 27th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
ISP may be on Long Island, but so are about 3 million people, that’s more then about 20 states (that’s just in Nassau & Suffolk counties). So Islip isn’t in the middle of nowhere. With WN serving ISP and everyone else serving LGA/JFK, there is little need for overlap.
August 27th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
This is a huge move – Newark serves northern NJ and is easy to get to by train form NYC. And it’s close to my friends in Jersey…
mp/m
August 28th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Oh my god this excites me to no end, my folks living 20 minutes from EWR.
August 29th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Mike Maddaloni, how do you do EWR to and from NYC by train? I have found no good train connections to Manhattan. I can get to and from JFK faster, and it’s the farthest away.
August 29th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
John, I know you asked Mike how he does it, but I can speak from personal experience: You take the AirTrain (monorail) to the Newark Liberty International railway station and then take a New Jersey Transit train to NY-Penn Station. It’s pretty easy. You can also take Amtrak, but it costs more. The Lautenberg station is on the Northeast Corridor, so you can head to Princeton, Trenton, Philadelphia, etc. from there as well. Or get off at Newark-Penn Station and connect to a PATH train to Manhattan.
Here’s a link to their brochure:
http://www.panynj.gov/airports/pdf/ewr-airtrain-brochure-english.pdf
And check http://www.njtransit.com/ for timetables into NY-Penn Station.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:30 am
My problem has been getting from Manhattan to EWR with predictability. No matter when I leave my apartment I always get to JFK in 75 to 85 minutes, since the subway and LIRR run with even consistency.
But the gap between Northeast Corridor trains out of NY-Penn ranges from 6 minutes to 53 minutes. So you really need to plan carefully and if you miss a train, you’re stuck.
Am I overlooking something? Using Amtrak? Making a connection somewhere?
August 30th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Something else to keep in mind is that if you’re going to Lower Manhattan, you can take the monorail to the airport rail station, take the NJT train one stop, then take PATH to World Trade. If you only have a carry on, you can even take the NJT bus from the airport to Newark Penn, then PATH to WTC – slow, but only $3.25!
@John – no, you’re not missing anything…the NJT train schedule from the airport station to Manhattan (or Newark Penn, for that matter) sucks greatly at some times. LIRR to Jamaica is much more reliable (well, not right now with the switching failure, but that should be fixed in a few more days), since all but one LIRR line pass through Jamaica. And the monorail from the terminals is very slow and too small for peak hour crowds.
Amtrak is anywhere from $24 to $48 (depending on advance purchase) from New York Penn to Newark Airport, so it’s really a non-starter.
Sometimes the bus is the most convenient way to go from NYC to EWR – the Coach USA bus is $15 one-way or $25 round-trip, and runs every 15 minutes from 6:45 AM to 11:15 PM and takes about a half-hour from Port Authority to Terminal “A”, a little slower than the train but you get the time back not having to deal with the crappy little monorail.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
What does a taxi between Newark Penn Station and EWR cost in money and minutes?
August 31st, 2010 at 11:08 am
Cab, as far as I remember is about 50-75$ , depending on traffic etc.
There is also the EWR Airport Shuttle Bus from Grand Central / Port Authority Bus Terminal to EWR. Usually about 60 minutes and 14$ RT.
August 31st, 2010 at 11:33 am
$50-75 is the cab fare from Manhattan — it’s a lot less to Newark Penn Station, generally with less traffic than leaving NYC, and a third of the distance. Here’s a map that may or may not render here in the comments:
View Larger Map