Last week, Southwest announced it was adding seasonal non-stop service between Pensacola and Austin as well as St. Louis. As followers of the KCI conversation already know, Austin and St. Louis are often held up as prime examples of airports stealing business from Kansas City International Airport due to new or renovated terminals.

In the case of Austin, you have a city that has doubled in size since 1990 and 20% since 2010. Austin, not the airport is attracting people and business. The airport is just trying to keep up. Our friends across the state are a little like the Oakland Raiders. Just mention the “St. Louis” and people get upset without looking at details.

So why wasn’t this breaking story out of Florida tweeted about by the usual suspects? Perhaps it was because Kansas City and it’s lackluster terminal started seasonal non-stop service to Pensacola LAST year. Not only that, but according to Michael Cole, Director of Capacity Planning at Southwest Airlines:

When we added Dallas and Kansas City to our Pensacola roster last year, they were among our top-performing new routes across our network.

Dallas’ Love Field of course, being the new poster child for what we need to do in KC. It seems we’re holding our own already.

Again, to those who have been following this issue, this really isn’t news. The bigger story might be that Pensacola seems to think the airport is in Kansas.
That or they just left off our last name. I wonder if they’ve been talking with Steve Rose??