Anakstore.com
» Airline Shake-Up at Newark Airport

Southwest adds EWR Its schedule as Continental and United prepare to merge

When I lived in New York and then New Jersey, I used Newark International Airport (EWR) more than any other. Only when flying internationally did I trek to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), which for a long time was the only metropolitan airport that really merited "International" as its middle name.

Even then (and this was in the '70s and '80s), I avoided LaGuardia with its congested terminals and rare on-time flights. Back then I was fanatically loyal to Continental, which hubbed at Newark. I stayed faithful after I moved to Colorado, because Continental also hubbed in Denver. But the airline betrayed my trust and let me down when Denver International Airport replaced the old Stapleton, and my formerly favorite airline pared its Denver service to just a few daily flights to a handful of cities.

Since moving to Colorado in 1988, I have been going back to the New York now and again. Over the years, I have used both LaGuardia and Newark, and flown Continental, United and occasionally Frontier when New York-bound -- depending on the schedules, the fares and whether I was heading for the East or West Side of Manhattan. Come March, I'll bet EWR and I will be good friends again.

United and Continental due to merge on October 1, making room for another carrier at EWR -- and Southwest is poised to fill the gap, initially with 18 daily flights, hopefully including non-stop service from Denver. While the merger is predicted to raise fares in general (hello-o-o-o Justice Department!), some industry experts have predicted that EWR fares will buck the trend and actually drop, perhaps by 20 to 25 percent, when Southwest enters the market.