Southwest Airlines will discontinue its direct flights from Manchester to Las Vegas next month, a Manchester airport official confirmed Tuesday.The airline’s move is similar to last year, when it stopped flying directly to Las Vegas in favor of a seasonal direct flight to Fort Lauderdale, said J. Brian O’Neill, deputy director of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.According to Southwest’s website, direct flights leaving at 7:30 a.m. and arriving in Las Vegas at 10:10 a.m. are available through Aug. 11 for either $531 for standard tickets or $559 for business select tickets.Beginning Aug. 12, no direct flights are available.The direct flight on Aug. 11 is five hours, 40 minutes. The shortest flight beginning Aug. 12 is seven hours and involves changing planes in Denver.The indirect flight is slightly more expensive – $542 for standard tickets and $570 for business select tickets, according to the website.The direct Manchester-to-Fort Lauderdale flight begins Nov. 4 and continues through at least the middle of March, which is the latest one can purchase an advance ticket on southwest.com. O’Neill said the airport anticipates that the direct Las Vegas flight will return in the spring.We are disappointed there is a gap between when the Las Vegas service leaves and when the Fort Lauderdale service begins,” O’Neill said.We’re going to lobby hard for Southwest to bring Las Vegas back when Fort Lauderdale goes away.Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said the airline evaluates the Las Vegas flight on a seasonal basis and that the airline plans to include Manchester in discussions about its flight schedule.
“Our airports, including Manchester, are very much involved in the dialogue in letting us know what our customers need and want,” Hawkins said.We continue to constantly evaluate our schedules on a daily basis and refine our schedules on a nearly monthly basis.O’Neill said the Las Vegas flight is very popular, with planes, on average, 98 percent filled. But a flight’s popularity is only one consideration for airlines, as fuel makes up 40 percent of an airline’s operating costs, he said.With Manchester in the upper Northeast, it costs an airline more to offer a direct flight to western destinations such as Las Vegas, he said.Our geographic location makes it challenging for airlines to serve distant domestic markets ... because of the cost of fuel,” O’Neill said.
