Southwest Comes To NYC - Finally!

For those of you who love to fly Southwest Airlines, but also travel to New York City frequently - your day has finally come.

Currently, the airline only flies to Long Island - which is quite a distance from the city. However, they are planing to start operations at LaGuardia Airport, a move that surprised some in the commercial aviation industry.

Southwest said in an announcement that it will buy assets from bankrupt ATA Airlines Inc. for $7.5 million. ATA ceased operations in April after filing for Chapter 11 protection.

That purchase is to include ATA's 14 flight slots at LaGuardia, plus ATA's operating certificate. With those slots, Southwest will be able to operate seven round-trip flights a day. They did not name any destinations and did not announce a time to start service.

Before that happens though, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court must approve Southwest's bid and ATA's reorganization plan. If the approval goes through, flights should start sometime in 2009.

Then, the only major market that they don't fly to will be Atlanta.