Southwest diary: No New York Earthshakes

Southwest just began service at New York's LaGuardia, and that's been occasion for a load of stories about how the low-fares leader is changing its business model and transforming itself. Well, it is a sight, the image of a Southwest plane in or at least near Gotham, but the airline's eight daily LaGuardia flights mark more of a continuation of its recent service patterns than any big, radical shift or major change. The carrier began its focus on big, big-city airports years ago when it went back into Denver, moved into Washington's Dulles and Philadelphia and even the Twin Cities. It needed places to grow and it could find more profitable growth at these close-in airports than at Midland, Texas, or even at Omaha. Southwest had outgrown the tertiary airports of the world a long time ago, and had exploited the secondary airports such as Long Island's Islip or Manchester, N.H., about as much as it could.
The airline's been after higher yielding business travelers for a couple of years. It ended its trademark 'first come, first seated' boarding rules with "Business Select," in which flyers pay a little more and get to go to the front of the line, and also earn extra frequent-flyer points and a free drink.
The really interesting question is this: will Southwest bring down LaGuardia fares (the so-called "Southwest Effect") or will LaGuardia bring up Southwest fares? No, we're not saying that Southwest will be another full-fare airline and never would, but we'd note that other low-fare carriers that have entered the LaGuardia market, carriers such as AirTran, are pretty proud of the yields they get in the Big Apple.