From Aviation Week: Airtran leaving Newark

AirTran, swapping slots with Continental, will leave Newark Airport after more than a decade of service there and add more flights and service at New York LaGuardia and Washington National instead. The slot swap is not nearly as big as the one involving Delta and US Airways. According to an official familiar with the slot situation at the airports involved, AirTran is giving Continental 10 slots at Newark in exchange for four Continental slots at LaGuardia and six at National. AirTran currently holds 21 slots at LaGuardia, from which it offers daily service to four cities, and 16 at National, from which it offers daily service to three cities. AirTran actually is adding service at LaGuardia involving six slots, which means it recently obtained another two slots from some other, unidentified carrier. An AirTran spokesman declined comment on any AirTran slot changes. The airline did announce, however, that it will be starting twice-daily service between LaGuardia and Indianapolis Nov. 4. It also will be adding daily Orlando service in addition to its current weekend-only service. At National, AirTran will add a sixth daily flight to its Atlanta hub and add twice-daily Orlando service to its current Saturday-only service. Orlando is a hub for AirTran, with service to more than 30 destinations, and it has been continuing to build on its East Coast service to Florida. What AirTran gives up is Newark, from which it has been offering service to Atlanta since July 1999. That service, currently five roundtrips a day, will end Oct. 25. (AirTran also briefly offered service between Newark and Chicago Midway, but that ended in January 2007.) "While closing Newark after serving this market for 10 years is a difficult decision, gaining increased access to LaGuardia and Reagan National creates significant growth opportunities for AirTran Airways in the future," Kevin Healy, the airline's senior VP-marketing and planning, said in a memo to employees. Continental's plans for the additional slots at Newark could not be determined yesterday.