Jackson Jambalaya

The much maligned JMAA now has American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, and United.

If you've traveled anywhere, the Jackson airport (especially with the renovated areas) is easily one of the nicest airports in the country serving a city under 150,000 people.

So excited to have SW back!

@9:29
I have traveled to quite a few airports, and the Jackson airport isn't one of the nicest. It isn't the worst, but it definitely has a ways to go.

@9:29 I appreciate your comment but heartily disagree. There are many comparable cities whose airports are much, much nicer. Columbia, SC, comes first to mind. Virtually identical demographic (150K city). It is cleaner, faster, more modern, with better amenities and restaurants. It doesn't have a monument to the board members rotating in the lobby, however.

well done Jackson. thank you

One wonderS what could Be the explanation for this relatively dramatic turnaround in effort, energy, attention on the part of the current airport minders? Left unchecked or un-threatened, the current minders would have taken until 2216 to get off their ass. Wonder what forced their hand?

Hey, 9:54, it was 2162, not 2216. But point taken.

"Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic carrier"

Southwest airlines is larger than american airlines, united, or delta?

I’m sure all that money spent on the Paris trip helped with this.

Must have gotten the details hammered out in Paris.

9:59, those are international carriers.

I'll believe it when Southwest makes the announcement, not when Jackson says it

Not a quote or a peep from Southwest. Jackson probably broke all sorts of confidentiality protocols with this premature announcement. Nothing like giving the competition plenty of heads up.

airlines look at metro areas, not individual cities.

i didn’t understand the move to pull out in 2014...

i think southwest anticipated more of its jackson market to make the drive to memphis or new orleans. that didn’t pan out.

frontier has killed it with the orlando route.

i think we will get houston, nashville, orlando, and chicago.

I personally love the pricing and light-heartedness of SW. However and why it happened doesn't matter to me. I'm just so glad they're coming back.

10:15. check out southwest airlines twitter feed. they announced it.

Southwest has announced it. Check the links below:

Announcement from ThePointsGuy.com

SEC Filing

Southwest announced 3 new cities, Colorado Springs Co, Jackson MS, and Savannah GA

Welcome back! Was it due to JMAA's persistence, Southwest's solid financial position, or a combination?

"We are pursuing additional revenue opportunities that utilize idle aircraft and Employees to provide our legendary Customer Service to new, popular destinations....Today we announce our intention to add service in first half 2021 to Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia, and a return to Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport in Mississippi." -- Gary C. Kelly, Chairman of the Board and CEO

https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-e0cd1d1fdd25e63bf17f0b5454518a4b-southwest-reports-third-quarter-2020-results

To the doubters, check out Southwest's Twitter.
https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/1319262283730739202

@10:15 Southwest announced it in their quarterly report today: https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-e0cd1d1fdd25e63bf17f0b5454518a4b-southwest-reports-third-quarter-2020-results

Look at Clarion Ledger article and it references Southwest comments. Please continue with your agenda though.

For the Lilliputians who think Southwest hasn’t announced anything:

https://twitter.com/southwestair/status/1319262283730739202?s=21

Southwest prices have gone up tremendously over the last few years.

9:29. Frontier pulled out. Strike them from the list.

Congrats to the Metro Region Airport Authority.

Apparently, there is no good news good enough for all things Jackson bashers.

And for the non-travelers, Jackson is a very nice airport given the amount of traffic.

The person comparing it to Columbia South Carolina is clueless. He apparently doesn't know that's where the University of South Carolina has it's football and basketball games. He doesn't know it's where you must fly in to go to other South Carolina cities of good size.

Good grief, and you wonder why people from other places suspect MS still is cursed with racism. When a State tries to bash their own Capitol , that's a hint.

@12:06.

I fly most every week. Jackson-Medgar Airport has some of the worst amenities and employees with bad attitudes. When I fly to other small market airports I’m amazed about the ways things should be.

Jackson’s airport is a joke.

I just hope they fly into Reagan, rather than Dulles or Baltimore in the D.C. market if they offer service there.

The Jackson, MS MSA (Metro Statistical Area) is just 540k. The Columbia, SC MSA is 840k.

The Jackson Airport reported a total number of passengers in 2018 of 900,000. Columbia had 1.2 million.

We are a tiny market.

"We are pursuing additional revenue opportunities that utilize idle aircraft and Employees to provide our legendary Customer Service to new, popular destinations....Today we announce our intention to add service in first half 2021"


Hmmmm. "Idle aircraft" "additional revenue" and "first half 2021" "idle Employees"

That sounds like a temporary slot or two and some gimmicks until summer 2021 or 2022, at most.

You could read that several ways, such as it's not a long term commitment, clearly that it mentions (currently) "idle" birds and "additional revenue."

Remember that SW sold out JAN, Key West, etc in a heartbeat for landing slots at LGA and DCA, etc.

I wouldn't celebrate too much knowing how airport welfare and the "slot machine" business there works.

Glad they'll be around for a short while, but how about those other alrlines with short terms flight schedules? They're gone too.

Stop the wild celebration, cuz we ain't no "destination" unless you're going to visit Ahhn Tee Temeka at Yazoo City FCI. And we SURE aren't any new, much less a "POPULAR destination."

THINK, folks.

Hey, Hey! What great news for so many residents in Central Mississippi. No more spending the night in Kenner to make early flights to places we like to go.

Welcome Home Southwest!

Southwest is looking for additional market share while the other main carriers struggle. They can easily restore their Houston flights and probably add Atlanta to give Delta some grief. If Bennie and Roger weigh in, we'll probably get a direct flight to Reagan. Regardless, this is good for Jackson and the region.

12:06 WOW! I didn't know comparing airports in different cities is racist. Hmmmm. I suppose it's not surprising considering, literally, EVERYTHING with which someone on the left doesn't agree is "racist," but I'm glad you let us know that's now on the list too! I'll add that to my "List of Racist Things," which, in single-spaced lines with 12pt type, just surpassed 540 miles long.......

Remember: when EVERYTHING becomes racist, NOTHING will be racist....and we're approaching that point!

Jackson and the Mayor got as many haters as the President.

Great news! Central MS gets another chance to supply sustainable/profitable numbers of passengers while SWA keeps their equipment exercised. Airlines typically operate on a month to month basis, so they could leave quickly if things don't pan. Marco from Tropoja says, "good luck".

I am beyond excited to see Southwest return to Jackson. Best of all it didn't require the State of Miss. and its Rankin Co. cronies to have ownership of the airport. Good job, JMAA!

Big thanks to Rankin and Madison Counties for providing 2/3rds of total passengers and justifying this airport's existence.

1-It’s a regional airport. We all do better when the airport is better. This is huge for us (again..)

2-flight to Nashville because of all the young MS residents who move there?

I’m guessing Nashville, Baltimore, Houston, Orlando...

Since my work requires me to travel to Houston, I have missed Southwest. That is great news!

Heard from a senior SW official I know, they are going into these markets to help low demand. They are limited on number of passengers and the demand is so low they are tapping smaller markets to help increase numbers. They over-hired for pilot shortage and now there is no demand. Perfect storm for us.

Super excited that they are here, now lets see if we can keep them. REMEMBER, they were here once before and split!

BTW, Thanks to a certain legislator for putting a fire under the asses of the nitwits at JMAA.

" I didn't know comparing airports in different cities is racist ".

LOL !

Well Mister Van Winkle, first of all . . . we're glad you finally no longer asleep.

Everything's racist in 2020.

More details after a pot of coffee.

How long until the clowns at JMAA make all kinds of ridiculous demands of SW, and SW reconsiders its decision?

Those fools could fuck up a cup of coffee, covfefe!!

Flew southwest to Louisville for the derby. They handed out free shots. That’s all I needed to see. Hands down the best airline.

Soooo, is the state still looking to steal Jackson's airport? That was Harkins whole thing, it cost too much to take kids to Disney because SW move out. Now what?

What got SW's attention was when they learned that the board attended the Paris Air Show. They then realized that they were dealing with some world class folks.

What a bunch of clowns you complainers are.

Hard to fathom that black people lured SW back to Jackson....the airline that resurrected JAN?

I fly quite a bit and I use SW almost exclusively out of MSY for direct flights with on time departures and arrivals and zero lost luggage.

Way to go JAN.....great job. Now people will be free to move about the country...and get a round trip ticket to ATL for less than Deltas scathing prices.

Is there any speculation on what routes we have? History would say we have Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, and Orlando? I have also heard rumors of Nashville.

This is fantastic, as it will give the hoards of tourists that will soon be coming to Jacktown more choices.

Is there such a thing a "drive-by tourism?"

The Columbia, SC airport was picked by a travel magazine as the best airport in America to take a NAP. No one to bother you! Stuck between Charlotte and Atlanta and much better service in Charleston, well you get it......

Not to take away the nice factor just no one to enjoy it.

As for the potential directs out of JAN, I suspect it will be Houston Hobby, Chicago Midway, BWI and Orlando, which if I recall correctly was where they flew when they were in JAN before. Nashville is a stretch - would be nice, but doesn't sound like a moneymaker for SWA.

Does it still take nearly an hour to get luggage off the plane to puckup?

The main reason I hate Jackson. Shreveport or Baton Rouge or Gulfport are Better airports than Jackson. Parking is cheaper too.

Me? I drive to meridian and puddle jump to Atlanta now.

It still sucks because

1) the food is crap.
2) the coffee is crap.
3) the "art gallery" was EMPTY the last time I was there.
4) it takes entirely too long to get your luggage. Recently, I had to wait 45 minutes...and ours was the only aircraft on the ground! I was told ( by a JMAA employee!) that the ground crew cleans the jet before they unload the luggage so they can go home a few minutes earlier. If true heads should roll.

When SW returns people will return.

Then food and beverage will improve and baggage handling will improve.

This is positive inertia.

And I bet SW has a route to Atlanta which it didn’t have before but which it has now due to render mergers.

"...they are going into these markets to help low demand."

Am I the only one baffled by that comment?

American will start back the direct flight from JAN to Reagan in January. 6 am flight and 9:30 arrival. Departure is also direct.
I hope SW gets some of that action.