SAN ANTONIO – Southwest Airlines may abort its mission to expand services in San Antonio. That’s because they won’t get space in the new terminal. They’re ready to square up with the city.
Southwest has till the end of the month to renew their contract with the airport. we spoke to travelers who are concerned about the possibility of any southwest changes that could come.
“We already have very limited options we don’t need even less,” says traveler Lauren Merriweather.
Merriweather hopes Southwest Airlines reaches an agreement with the airport. She doesn’t want any disruption in Southwest Airlines services.
“It’s one more thing, it’s an expense and an inconvenience and I certainly hope they reconsider,” says Merriweather.
On Thursday, the San Antonio City Council approved an airline operating agreement and a series of terminal leases. Southwest Airlines has yet to renew. Southwest Airlines Spokesman Chris Perry states: Southwest is not in favor of the gate allocation within the use and lease agreement as it stands and has communicated to the airport/City that we will not sign it in its current form. Throughout the multiyear good-faith negotiations with the airport, we were told we would move to 10 gates at the new Terminal C. In June, the airport abruptly changed course and alerted us that we’d be staying at Terminal A, which is insufficient for our future growth plans at SAT. Prior to finding out we would not be moving to Terminal C in the City’s gate allocation plans, we agreed to a $200 million placeholder for enhancements at Terminal A which is an insignificant amount for the amount of enhancements needed.
We will continue to work with the airport on a solution that provides the experience our Customers and Employees deserve. The airport’s current decisions with gate allocation cater to a very specific and elite Customer, which will feel is out of touch with the overall traveler base in San Antonio and is not reflective of the SAT, and the community, we’ve served for more than 53 years. Only one airline at SAT currently takes Customers nonstop to 22 destinations without being funneled through a hub.
As far as economic impact, I don’t have anything readily available but we have a 40 percent market share at SAT and proudly carried more than 3.7 million Customers in 2023. We have plans for future growth at SAT but will be forced to reassess those plans without a concrete, viable option from the city to solve the capacity constraint problems.
“Everyone wanted to be in the same place and we could not accommodate everybody in the same location,” says Director of Airports for the city of San Antonio Jesus Saenz.
Saenz says 7 of 8 airlines signed the agreement, and airport officials have been trying to finalize with everyone for the last 2 years.
“We went through a very rigorous and thoughtful process with a master architect and engineer that provided the data and information that led us to this decision and that’s why we are Moving forward with it,” says Saenz.
All current lease agreements for all airlines at SAT expire on Sept. 30. Once an airline signs, they are locked for 10 years, with options to renew for an additional five years. And if no agreement is reached, Southwest says how flights can be affected remains up in the air.