Southwest Airlines lands in Charleston on Sunday

After nearly a year of anticipation, Charleston's first red and purple plane arrives Saturday from Dallas with 70 Southwest Airlines employees onboard ready to fly the next morning.

Industry insiders estimate that the discount carrier could save local travelers $180 million in ticket fares and bring in 200,000 new passengers annually while driving down competitors' prices.

Southwest spokeswoman Ashley Dillon said company officials are "extremely pleased" with the demand so far on all seven routes to four cities: Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Nashville and Houston.

AirTran Airways, Charleston's most recent discount carrier, pulled out at the end of 2009 for a lack of corporate customers. But Charleston businesses appear poised to support Southwest.

Employees at two major companies based locally said they already plan to use the route to Baltimore/Washington frequently.

Tommy Pruitt, spokesman for Ladson-based armored vehicle-maker Force Protection Inc., said the company will book multiple flights each week.

Scott Van Buren, director of administrative services for Daniel Island software giant Blackbaud Inc., said his company added Southwest as a preferred carrier for its corporate flights.

Blackbaud sorely missed service to the nation's capital after the financial collapse of another discount carrier, Independence Air, in 2006.

"We wore that route out," Van Buren said. "When they left, it literally cost us a fortune."

John Powers, owner of North Charleston-based travel agency Travel Management Group, said Southwest's arrival comes at a particularly critical time, just as travel continues its return from recession, and as gas prices continue to soar.

"Without Southwest in here, I think fares would increase substantially," Powers said. "No question."

But not everyone finds such bargains on Southwest.

Daniel Island resident and retiree Harmon Feig said he constantly checks fares between Charleston and Newark, N.J., where some of his family lives.

He said he used to be able to make the trip when AirTran Airways served the airport for anywhere from $175 to $220. But with Southwest, the cheapest ticket price he could find was $320.

He noticed that the lowest fares seem aimed at travelers who don't connect from the four cities Southwest will serve directly from Charleston and said, "To go beyond that, they're not inexpensive."

When Feig contacted Southwest about the Charleston-Newark route, company officials replied in writing, saying Southwest sets prices based on several factors, such as how many seats have been sold and the time of year. It also offered him a tip on how to search for the cheapest tickets on its website through a program called Southwest Shortcut.

Feig said he hasn't given up on the airline, but it has to show him the savings to get his business.

"I'll always check," he said.

When that first plane pulls into town Saturday, dozens of Southwest employees will unload toys to deliver to the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House on Sunday afternoon -- after the crew welcomes its first Charleston passengers with breakfast and certificates marking the inaugural flight.

"We are not just an airline serving the airport, but we want to be part of the community," said Dillon, the spokeswoman. "We want to show Charleston we are here to stay."

Southwest at a glance

Top executive: Gary Kelly, president (pictured at left), CEO, chairman.

Headquarters: Dallas.

Started: 1971.

Daily flights: 3,200.

Cities served: 72 (as of March 27).

Average one-way fare: $130.27.

Employees: 35,000.

Stock symbol: LUV for Dallas' Love Field, where the airline got its start.

Net income: $459 million.

Total passengers: 88 million.

Average passenger load: 79.3 percent.

Fleet: 548 Boeing 737 jets.

Fleet average age: 11.2 years.

Average trip length and time: 648 miles; 1 hour, 52 minutes.

Website: southwest.com.

Fighting for air

Don't expect competing carriers to take Southwest's arrival sitting down. A rundown of the other airlines that serve Charleston International Airport:

--American Eagle: The carrier returned to Charleston in 2009 with a daily flight to Miami. Last year, it added a second flight to the South Florida metropolis, simplifying connections for local travelers going to Latin America. It also operates three dailies between Charleston and Dallas-Forth Worth.

--Continental Airlines: The airline runs five flights a day to its home base in Houston and to Newark, N.J. Continental's parent company is merging with the owner of United Airlines, which also serves Charleston International Airport through a feeder carrier, United Express.

--Delta Air Lines: The 800-pound gorilla of local air service for decades and top local carrier, Delta offers service on 15 daily flights, mostly to its main hub in Atlanta. Its other nonstop destinations are New York City's LaGuardia Airport and Detroit. Delta took Northwest Airlines out of the local lineup when the two merged. Southwest's proposed merger with low-fare rival AirTran will turn up the head-to-head competition at Delta's Atlanta hub, where AirTran is a sizable player.

--US Airways: The airport's second largest carrier as measured by passengers, it offers 19 flights to Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington National and New York City.

--United Express: The commuter carrier for United Airlines shuttles passengers eight times a day to Chicago and Dulles International Airport outside Washington D.C.

Note: Flight schedules change monthly; these are the latest numbers.

Flight data

Southwest Airlines' estimated impact to Charleston, by the numbers:

$180 million: Amount that experts estimate Southwest will save local travelers every year in airfares.

$3.8 million: Amount dedicated to advertising Southwest's new service in South Carolina. The airline will work with tourism organizations in Charleston and Greenville-Spartanburg, plus the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, to attract new travelers.

200,000: Estimated increase in the number of passengers traveling through Charleston International Airport each year.

7: Nonstop daily flights from Charleston (three to Baltimore/Washington, two to Chicago, one to Nashville and one to Houston).

72: Number of destinations Southwest reaches.

$30: Limited-time fares when Southwest announced service. After that, rates started at $59 for a one-way flight to Nashville, $79 to Baltimore and $99 to Chicago on the discount carrier's website.

Discount drawer

Charleston has a checkered past when it comes to the survival rate among low-fare airlines.

Continental Lite: A unit of the legacy carrier of the same name launched in 1993 to grab discount travelers. It boosted Charleston airport traffic to a then-record high in 1994, but it shut down in 1995.

Air South: A small, Columbia-based operation that launched in 1994 with the help of federal money that was set up as a loan from the state of South Carolina. The airline never achieved a critical mass and was plagued with customer complaints. It was liquidated in 1997, costing the state about $12 million.

Independence Air: The northern Virginia-based carrier started in 2004 with six round-trip flights a day on 50-seat jets shuttling passengers between Charleston and Washington Dulles International Airport. Independence filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 and ceased operations in early 2006.

AirTran: AirTran first tested the waters in Charleston with a flight between the Holy City and Orlando via Columbia back in 1997, but that ill-fated experiment was scuttled after just five months. The carrier returned to Charleston in 2007, boosting passenger traffic and forcing rivals to cut fares on overlapping routes. But AirTran pulled out in December 2009, citing lackluster demand from business travelers. Local fares quickly rose.

Southwest Airlines: The Dallas-based pioneer of the low-fare industry announced last May that it would start serving Charleston International Airport in early 2011. Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport also landed the carrier.

John P. McDermott of The Post and Courier contributed to this story. Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594.