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The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.

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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

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Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Posted by John Gillie @ 01:40:08 pm

Southwest Airlines will drop two of its four daily flights from Seattle to Chicago's Midway Airport and one of four daily flights from Sea-Tac to Denver as part of a "route optimization" plan effective Nov. 2.

The Seattle flight schedule deletions were part of a system-wide schedule readjustment that Southwest announced today.

Under that scheme, Southwest is eliminating 31 underperforming flights but adding 40 new ones.

In the Seattle-Chicago non-stop market, Southwest faces United and American, which both have hubs at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Alaska, which has a hub at Sea-Tac.

In the Denver market, it faces competition from United and Frontier, who both have a hub in the Mile-High City and Alaska, whose headquarters are in SeaTac.

Southwest is one a few airlines adding to its schedule instead of shrinking it.

The Dallas-based low-cost carrier is cutting back flights where it faces strong competition or weak demand and adding flights where it sees weakened competitors or growing demand.

Southwest is particularly emphasizing new flights at Denver where its two main competitors, United and Frontier, are in financial difficulties. Southwest is adding a net of 20 more daily flights at Denver.

United has just emerged from bankruptcy reorganization and has unsuccessfully sought to merge with Continental and US Airways. The Chicago-headquartered United is grounding dozens of its planes and laying off 950 pilots.

Frontier is in bankruptcy reorganization. It recently announced that it will sell off 11 of its 60 relatively new Airbus aircraft.

Categories: General, Aerospace, Tourism