Tourism & Gaming:

The analysts are cheering Southwest Airlines and its 35th consecutive year of profitability as 2007 was a record year for earnings for the busiest air carrier at McCarran International Airport.

Although Southwest's fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts' estimates, they didn't measure up to goals management set.

But don't shed any tears for the Dallas -based airline. It still has a financial record second to none in the airline industry, and that bodes well for the long-term interests of Las Vegas tourism.

In addition, the company is looking to operate even better, which is bad news for Southwest's competitors. Mike Boyd, the Evergreen, Colo.-based airline consultant , said Southwest is more dangerous than ever to other airlines seeking to steal market share.

"Our advice for airline strategic planners is to think of Southwest as a bear that just came out of hibernation," Boyd said. "It's hungry, cranky and in a very bad competitive mood ... except it has great customer service."

In last week's earnings call, Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly said the company is "intensely focused on improving the efficiency and profitability of our flight schedule."

Southwest approaches flight scheduling with the precision of a surgeon, nipping and tucking routes to put just enough airplanes in markets they think will be profitable and taking away just enough to still meet anticipated demand.

In addition to pruning the schedule, Southwest slowed down its overall fleet growth scheduled in 2008. It will add 29 aircraft, but retire 22 others to bring the total to 527 Boeing 737s by the end of the year. The company announced it is exercising three options for deliveries in 2009, resulting in 21 firm orders and seven options.

To further bolster the company's share price, Southwest purchased 66 million shares of its common stock for $1 billion in 2007, and then last week, announced that it would buy back another $500 million worth of shares.

Southwest made one other big announcement last week. After months of hinting about plans to put onboard Internet access in its planes, the company confirmed that it would partner with Westlake Village, Calif. -based Row 44 to develop satellite-delivered Wi-Fi Internet access.

Southwest is starting with access on four planes and plans to have the service running on them by summer. Row 44 is the same company that is partnering with Alaska Airlines to turn some of its planes into flying hot spots.

Incidentally, Southwest's Texas rival, American Airlines, also announced its own online access project last week. The company said it would place a system developed by Aircell LLC of Itasca, Ill. , on American's 15 Boeing 767 jumbo jets. Those planes are used primarily for transcontinental trips.

So how will Southwest's schedule tweaking affect Las Vegans? After years of growth and expansion by Southwest at McCarran, spring's schedule shuffle will decrease capacity by five round trips a day, including one of the city's precious round trips to Reno .

It isn't a massive cut — less than 3 percent of total capacity. But it is a cut.

Here's the Las Vegas breakdown: The airline will add one flight to Buffalo, N.Y , (to two a day); one to Columbus, Ohio (to three a day); one to St. Louis (for four a day); and one to Tampa, Fla. (for two a day).

In addition, Southwest will start up a non-stop round trip to and from Jacksonville, Fla.

Now, the flight losses: Southwest will lose two flights to Chicago 's Midway Airport (down to 10 a day); two to Oakland, Calif. (to 12 a day); and one each to Kansas City, Mo. (to five a day); Nashville, Tenn. (to three a day); Ontario, Calif. (to nine a day); Phoenix (to 17 a day); Tucson (to five a day); and to Reno (to 12 a day).

In addition to losing one of its Las Vegas flights, Reno International also lost a nonstop to Portland, Ore.

The big winner in Southwest's scheduling shuffle was Denver International Airport, which got 16 flights including new routes to Los Angeles ; Philadelphia ; Raleigh - Durham, N.C. ; San Antonio ; San Jose, Calif. ; and St. Louis .

The biggest loser: Oakland, Calif. , which netted a loss of nine daily flights, but will still have a double-digit number of depatures to the cities affected.

How did customers react to the news? Positively, of course.

On the day that Southwest announced it was "optimizing" its schedule, the company had the second-largest booking day in its history. Denver bookings were 169 percent ahead of the previous year's and 76 percent ahead of the previous week's.

And what was the top city for those bookings on Jan. 9? Las Vegas !

If Southwest can continue to get more from less, a decrease in the number of flights may turn out to be a good thing for the city, as long as the airline can keep its customer service end up.

In Other Tourism News:

Station Casinos' Red Rock Resort scored a major coup on two fronts last week when the property played host to a couple of big events.Red Rock draws —

Red Rock Lanes was the site of a double-header of sorts when the Professional Bowlers Association tour, sponsored by Denny's restaurant chain, was in town Jan. 20-27 for the PBA Exempt Doubles Classic and the 2008 H&R Block Tournament of Champions.

The doubles event was the first "Major" in pro bowling in Las Vegas since 1978. Las Vegas has hosted more Denny's PBA Tour events (72) than any other city and has had 26 doubles events, but the Classic was the first Major here in 30 years.

The PBA expanded the format for the Tournament of Champions so 52 bowlers could participate instead of the 32 in the past.

The bowlers had Red Rock rocking, and the city will get an additional shot of publicity since ESPN not only aired the finals Jan. 27, but will rebroadcast the Tournament of Champions on Feb. 3.

The other event that got national attention was the Red Rock's race and sports book's hosting of the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship.

In that event, which had a $1 million purse and a top prize of $500,000, 275 horse racing enthusiasts gathered Jan. 25-26 to vie for the title of "Handicapper of the Year."

Players were given a mythical bankroll and picked horses on 30 $2 win-and-place wagers from 120 races run at six tracks.

Red Rock, the first billion-dollar resort built off the Strip, is continuing to show that it can compete with the big boys on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Nevada ... could it?" is a resolution that was brought to the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States, an organization of lawmakers from states that have casinos. The organization occasionally meets in Las Vegas .Smoke-free casinos? — Filed under "This could never happen in

At the organization's January session in Scottsdale, Ariz. , a group called the New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution presented a resolution that asks the legislators to support 100 percent smoke-free casino environments.

The legislators' Committee on Casinos took up the resolution, which had letters of support from more than 25 organizations ranging from the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the California Clean Air Project.

The committee agreed to air the issue publicly, and the legislators will consider the resolution when the organization meets in Sonoma, Calif. , in June.