ATA back flying out of Midway

[DemoBri1]

Well...the AAA Travel Agent who has a brother working for ATA was correct. Here I thought she might have been spreading the rumor mill, but here I found out yesterday that ATA is again resuming direct flights from Midway to MCO.

Their press release said due to customer demand, but the thought is that SW has been having problems handling the load out of Midway to MCO. There's probably a decent chance that you're going to see more than the two daily non-stops to/from Orlando in the near future.

I say bring it on. I had no problems with ATA, and I'd be glad to fly them again. Plus, I still have some rewards mileage with them.

 

[HappyLawyer]

OH MY GOD, PRAISE THE LORD AND THANK YOU JESUS-THAT MAKES ME SOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY

 

[HappyLawyer]

but i wonder with the ding offers that southwest is doing if it will give them a run for their money

 

[DemoBri1]

but i wonder with the ding offers that southwest is doing if it will give them a run for their money

I'm fairly certain that SW will probably still be the lowest at least for the foreseeable future. I mean they are in some sense the owners of ATA if not officially then by default when they bailed them out. I'm figuring that SW is simply massing all of their resources and using ATA to help ferry the load out of Midway.

We can only hope though that ATA is provided a legitimate shot to give SW a run for their money. If they are $15-20 higher, I'd very much consider flying them if for nothing else to avoid the "cattle call" of SW.

 

[inkkognito]

Aw, and here I gave away my free flights on ATA! Oh well, I would return to them if they matched SW's prices and schedule, but I have serious doubts they will do that. We've been getting Ding fares for as little as $105, and it seems like SW has a flight to MCO every two hours or so. I've even gotten used to the cattle call!
Barb

 

[MAH4546]

We can only hope though that ATA is provided a legitimate shot to give SW a run for their money. If they are $15-20 higher, I'd very much consider flying them if for nothing else to avoid the "cattle call" of SW.

They aren't giving Southwest a run for their money. The reason they are starting this flight is because of Southwest. Southwest is ATA's largest shareloader, and they want ATA to run these flights to handle some of the excess demand that Southwest cannot. ATA is also re-starting flights from Midway to Miami (3x daily) and Sarasota (2x daily). The fares on the ATA and Southwest flights will be nearly identical.

 

[inkkognito]

Not identical on Orlando, that's for sure! We checked ATA and they are WAY more!
Barb

 

[tycon07]

The only reason we flew ATA was because they had better times. I don't think I will be flying ATA due to their MAJOR staffing problems in IND.

 

[WDWBetsy]

We'll be flying with ATA this November. We're frequent travelers with them and hope they get their act together financially - we've always been happy with their prices, nonstop flights and service.

 

[inkkognito]

I hope to fly them again someday too...I still carry my Elite card in memory of all the hours I spend on their 753s. But unless they get their fares within reason, I'm sticking to the Southwest cattle call. Since SW owns part of them, I'm surprised the fares don't match or at least come a little closer.
Barb