Southwest Airlines makes play for more CLT travelers
Southwest Airlines Co. sees room in Charlotte to land more business travel, particularly when companies are bringing employees in from other cities for meetings.
It’s an interesting pitch for an airline that has traditionally been seen more as a leisure travel carrier (“direct-to-consumer” in the airline’s parlance) but that has made inroads with business fliers.
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The pitch here also marks a creative approach at a hub airport — Charlotte Douglas International Airport — where Texas-based rival American Airlines Group Inc. accounts for 90% of passenger traffic.
During a recent site visit in Charlotte, David Harvey, Southwest’s chief sales officer, and several of his colleagues met with corporate customers and hosted them for an uptown luncheon to share insights and recommendations.
Harvey declined to name names but said the Charlotte clients “are a lot of the usual suspects” — financial services companies and larger law firms would be a safe bet — and who “either are based here or the person who runs their travel program lives in the Charlotte area.”
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