<i>ATA Airlines today announced that it will
discontinue domestic scheduled service at Midway Airport effective April 14,
2008, and international service will cease effective June 7, 2008. The affected
ATA domestic markets include Oakland, Calif., and Dallas/Ft. Worth, and the
international routes include Cancun and Guadalajara, Mexico. Flights between
the West Coast and Hawaii destinations are not affected.
“ATA has operated a Midway hub since 1992, and we have greatly
appreciated the support we received from the City of Chicago and our many
customers during those years,” said Rob Binns, Chief Commercial and Planning
Officer. “This was a difficult decision, but the high cost of fuel has made it
economically unfeasible to continue our low-fare service at Midway. We will
redeploy our ATA aircraft in profitable charter service.&quot;
All customers currently booked on discontinued ATA flights will receive
refunds for the unused portions of their reservations. For questions, contact ATA
at 800-435-9282 or visit the website, www.ata.com. </i>

Sorry about the misleading thread title....

I wish Fodor's offered editing feature, aghhhh!

Fodors editors - please fix the title!

I am waiting for them to drop all scheduled service, sell the remaning 753s to CO and make the WN flyers very angry for having no way to get to Hawaii.

How long before WN begins flights of its own to HI and Mexico?

Maybe a couple years ago, Southwest said they're upgrading their computer systems to handle international routes as well as seat assignments. We know what happened to the seat assignments issue, but I have not heard anything since about the international front.

Its current fleet of 737s do not have ETOPS, so can't operate from mainland to Hawaii.

I booked ATA from Oakland to Maui and Maui to Las Vegas for July/August. Guess I better reconfirm those flights?

wally - ATA is <b>not</b> discontinuing service to Hawaii right now. However, that doesn't mean there are no rumors and speculations.

This is from a Honolulu newspaper:

starbulletin.com/2008/03/07/news/story05.html

What are ETOPS?

Either:

1. Engine Turn Or Passenger Swim;

or

2. Extended-range Twin-engine Operation Performance Standard

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

I'm surprised the newer 737s don't have ETOPS. Is that in the plan? I could see demand from NY/British Isles, for example as 757 continue to age.

Southwest can modify the aircraft and their maintenance protocol to get all or some of their 737s ETOPS certified. If they want to fly to Hawaii.