Southwest Airlines adds 2 cities, dozens of new routes
Cincinnati and the Cayman Islands are in. The Ohio cites of Dayton and Akron-Canton are out.
That’s the shakeout as Southwest rolled out its summer flight plan, extending its booking schedule through Aug. 14, 2017.
The carrier routinely adds and drops routes during its seasonal updates. But the latest schedule release features an unusual amount of activity; More than two dozen nonstop routes will begin with the 2017 summer schedule in June, according to information from Southwest.
The highest-profile changes come with the destinations that will join Southwest’s route map, and with the ones that will fall off.
Southwest will begin flying from Cincinnati and from Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands on June 4.
Southwest will connect Cincinnati to its bases at Baltimore/Washington and Chicago Midway. Southwest’s Grand Cayman service will operate to its base in Fort Lauderdale, pending regulatory approval for that international route.
Southwest Airlines will fly from Cincinnati
Cincinnati had long been the biggest metro area that Southwest did not serve, and the airline’s new service was warmly embraced by officials there. The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) was once one of America’s busiest airports, buoyed by bustling hub for Delta Air Lines. Delta still operates a hub there, but it has sharply reduced its presence – eliminating hundreds of flights and dozens of nonstop routes that it used to fly from Cincinnati -- since its merger with Northwest last decade.
But while Southwest moved into Cincinnati, it also said it would end service to two smaller airports in the state of Ohio. The airline will drop its flights from both Akron-Canton and Dayton once the new schedule takes effect in June.
Elsewhere, Southwest moved to bolster its presence in Florida and in California.
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In Fort Lauderdale, Southwest says it’s begun “a six-month countdown to the opening of a new international concourse” that will be a busy cog in the airline’s international operation. As part of that, Southwest announced plans for nonstop routes from Fort Lauderdale to four international destinations (Belize, Cancun, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay) and three domestic ones (Orlando, Philadelphia and Washington Dulles).
In California, Southwest is strengthening its position in several key markets. That comes as merging rivals Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are set to become a West Coast juggernaut -- especially in California -- as they integrate their schedules.
In San Diego, Southwest is launching four new seasonal or year-round routes. The carrier also is expanding at other airports in the state. Among the highlights: seasonal nonstop service between Oakland and Newark and year-round nonstop service between San Francisco and Portland, Ore.
Elsewhere, Southwest will resume a more than a dozen of its regular summer seasonal routes. Those range from international routes like Houston-Aruba and Austin-Los Cabos, Mexico, to domestic pairings such as Nashville-Seattle and Kansas City-Pensacola, Fla.
Scroll down for a full list of Southwest schedule adjustments showing up on its new summer schedule (resumption of previously operated seasonal routes are not included):
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ADDED ROUTES
Atlanta-Cleveland: 2 daily round-trip flights (1 on Saturday)
Austin-Panama City, Fla.: 1 round-trip flight each Saturday
Chicago Midway-San Juan, Puerto Rico: 1 round-trip flight each Sunday
Cincinnati-Baltimore: 3 daily round-trip flights
Cincinnati-Chicago Midway: 5 daily round-trip flights
Denver-Pensacola, Fla.: 1 round-trip flight each Saturday and Sunday
Fort Lauderdale-Belize: 1 daily round-trip flight
Fort Lauderdale-Cancun: 1 daily round-trip flight
Fort Lauderdale-Grand Cayman: 1 daily round-trip flight
Fort Lauderdale-Montego Bay, Jamaica: 1 daily round-trip flight
Fort Lauderdale-Orlando: 5 daily round-trip flights (resumes a route dropped in 2012)
Fort Lauderdale-Philadelphia: 1 daily round-trip flight (upgraded from seasonal to year-round service)
Fort Lauderdale-Washington Dulles: 1 daily round-trip flight
Minneapolis/St. Paul- Nashville: 1 daily round-trip flight
New York LaGuardia-Tampa: 2 daily round-trip flights
Newark-Indianapolis: 2 daily round-trip flights (1 on Saturday and Sunday)
Newark-Oakland: 1 daily round-trip flight (seasonal)
Newark-San Diego: 1 daily round-trip flight (seasonal)
St. Louis-Charleston, S.C.: 1 round-trip flight each Saturday and Sunday
San Diego-Boise: 1 daily round-trip flight
San Diego-Indianapolis: 1 daily round-trip flight (seasonal)
San Diego-Spokane: 1 daily round-trip flight (seasonal)
San Diego-Salt Lake City: 1 daily round-trip flight
San Francisco-Portland, Ore.: 3 daily round-trip flights
San Jose, Calif.-Reno: 1 daily round-trip flight (resumes a route dropped in 2012)
Southwest grows out West, adds two Salt Lake City-California routes
DROPPED ROUTES
Akron-Canton/Atlanta
Dayton-Chicago Midway
Fort Lauderdale-Milwaukee (seasonal suspension)
Hartford, Conn.-Fort Myers, Fla. (seasonal suspension)
Los Angeles-Liberia, Costa Rica
New York LaGuardia-Indianapolis
Providence-Fort Myers, Fla. (seasonal suspension)
TWITTER: You can follow Today in the Sky editor Ben Mutzabaugh at twitter.com/TodayInTheSky
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