AirTran Airways has announced that, due to the merger between Southwest and AirTran that is set to be complete at the end of this year, they will begin cutting down their service from KIA beginning as soon as the end of this month. They will end all flights to Milwaukee and Orlando on June 30, 2014. Their flights to Baltimore and Atlanta won't end until December 28, 2014, which is the last day of AirTran operations before the merger is finished. However, Southwest already operates flights from KIA to Milwaukee, Orlando, and Baltimore, so there will still be service to those cities. Southwest is also set to begin service to Atlanta on July 1, 2014, well before AirTran ends their flights to Atlanta. Southwest will not take over AirTran's gates (B3 & B4) until December 29, 2014, the day after AirTran's last flights from KIA. Once the merger is complete, Southwest will have control of more gates at the airport than any other airline that serves KIA (except for Delta). They will have four gates at Terminal B (B3, B4, B8, & B9) along with two gates at Terminal D (D5 & D6). Southwest and Delta will then both have six gates at KIA. Southwest hasn't yet decided what they will do with the two extra gate acquisitions, but they will most likely add more flights to some of their focus cities such as Chicago-Midway and Phoenix.
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