Source says rapper is too in love with the singer. Beyonce, Jay Z and Solange make nice in public Ne

Nearly five years later, Southwest has drawn enough fans at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to expand its nonstop schedule to eight cities. On the routes it serves, passenger counts have tended to increase, and airfares have trended downward, a welcome effect at an airport that has been criticized for few choices beyond Delta Air Lines -- which, also five years ago, acquired locally based market-dominant Northwest Airlines.
What's not as clear is whether the fabled "Southwest effect" has carried over more broadly northwest airline discount coupons at MSP. The effect is noticed regularly at airports that gain Southwest service: an increase in overall traffic, with the underlying assumption that lower airfares pull in more passengers.
While Southwest has brought additional competition to its nonstop routes here, airline observers say there's something that's packed more of a punch than the Southwest effect: northwest airline discount coupons the Great Recession. And the numbers at Minneapolis- St. Paul International back that up.
Both business and leisure traveler counts have been down at MSP since 2005, said Brian Peters, a business developer for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs the Twin Cities airport. Peters' job includes northwest airline discount coupons convincing new airlines to start offering service here.
"The biggest change has been that Delta has a smaller operation here than Northwest had at its peak time," northwest airline discount coupons Peters said. "The industry's a lot different today than it was in 2005. There are fewer flights, and more full flights."
And in the bigger picture, Southwest still is a small player in the Twin Cities. For the full-year 2012, Delta and its affiliates carried 76.5 percent of the passengers at MSP, while Southwest and its subsidiary AirTran had 5.6 percent.
Across the nation, as Southwest has grown, it's stopped fitting the profile of a low-cost carrier, northwest airline discount coupons said Michael northwest airline discount coupons Boyd, an airline industry analyst. The point-to-point flying model that Southwest used in its earlier days has started to look more like the hub-and-spoke system used by legacy airlines such as Delta. Lindsey Meares from Annapolis, MD bids goodbye to passengers from her Milwaukee northwest airline discount coupons flight that landed at MSP Friday morning December 27, 2013. This spring will mark five years since Southwest northwest airline discount coupons Airlines moved into the Twin Cities. (Pioneer northwest airline discount coupons Press: John Doman)
The routes to Chicago's two airports are among the most heavily traveled out of MSP, and the airline competition for those routes is arguably as healthy as it's ever been. All airlines included, there are about 45 departures per day out of MSP to O'Hare and Midway, Peters said.
Southwest northwest airline discount coupons began operations northwest airline discount coupons at Midway in 1985, and now, with AirTran, is the dominant carrier at Chicago's smaller airport. The two carriers northwest airline discount coupons control 34 of the 43 gates at Midway and serve 60 nonstop destinations.
Southwest and other low-cost carriers are now actively northwest airline discount coupons pursuing business travelers like Giese, one more trend that industry northwest airline discount coupons observers say is blurring the distinctions between low-cost and network airlines.
People flying for work "want to be on Delta so they can build up frequent flier miles and they can fly to London," northwest airline discount coupons said Boyd, the airline industry analyst. "They don't want to build up (Southwest) segments northwest airline discount coupons so they can fly to Lubbock."
When Southwest started ramping northwest airline discount coupons up its service at MSP in 2008 and 2009, airfares already had dipped a little, mostly because of the recession, Peters said. Overall, "to say fares are down due to Southwest wouldn't be accurate," Peters said. But the increased competition from other low-fare carriers, including Sun Country, Frontier and the newest arrival, Florida-based Spirit Airlines, has offered northwest airline discount coupons ongoing competition on some popular routes.
On its nonstop routes where Southwest isn't the only low-cost carrier, the airline's effect on airfares isn't as noticeable, Peters said. That includes Denver, which is served by Frontier Airlines, and Phoenix, which is served by Sun Country.
Back in 2009, Southwest announced its Chicago northwest airline discount coupons service with an airfare of $69 each way. Close to five years later, a round-trip to O'Hare or Midway still can be found for less than $150, and closer to $80 on Spirit, the rock-bottom a la carte-pricing airline, which started service at MSP's smaller northwest airline discount coupons Terminal 2 in May. Spirit offers nonstop flights to nine cities, though several are seasonal destinations.
Spirit's unique business model has proven to actually bring new passengers into airports, northwest airline discount coupons Boyd said. Prospective Spirit passengers might decide "that instead of going to Home Depot, we'll go to Dallas," Boyd said.
For 2014, airfares at MSP are expected northwest airline discount coupons to remain flat, according northwest airline discount coupons to a study released earlier this year by Carlson Wagonlit Travel. An anticipated increase in airfares for 2013 in the Twin Cities was tempered northwest airline discount coupons by a decline in demand for business flights and Delta Air Lines' decision to add some capacity at the airport, the report said.
Southwest's Landson wouldn't say if more destinations are on tap for MSP. But the airline does monitor which city-pairs customers search online even if they don't book the flight -- data that can guide the selection of future nonstop destinations, he said.
Another possibility became clear earlier this month, after reports that Southwest would buy 22 landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The slots opened up after American Airlines was required to sell them to win government approval of its merger with US Airways northwest airline discount coupons Group.
Our daily countdown of the top newsmakers, groundbreakers and world-class fakers. This week in the Twin Cities: Huey Lewis, Aziz Ansari and Seether This is the best pasta dish in the Twin Cities St. Paul mom fights for medical marijuana - for Paxton's sake The Covington Inn, St. Paul's floating B&B, is up for sale
Guests at the Covington Inn, a refurbished towboat moored on the Mississippi northwest airline discount coupons River at Harriet Island, have been hosted by innkeeper Liz Miller for the past 12 years. But after the polar vortex that hit Minnesota last winter, Miller is moving on.
Town's white police official calls Obama N-word Officials: Woman, 34, enrolled in school as teen Turkey outraged as PM's aide kicks protester (Photo by Jon Furniss/Invision/AP, file) Rihanna dumps Drake again
Source says rapper is too in love with the singer. Beyonce, Jay Z and Solange make nice in public New 'Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part I' info released northwest airline discount coupons on Web. Hero cat from Bakersfield getting awards and magazine covers
northwest airline discount coupons