Southwest Airlines is making some changes to its route map for travel over the coming months.
The Dallas-based carried filed plans over the weekend to add four new routes and cut two others, as first seen in Cirium Diio schedules and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.
Beginning June 4, Southwest will add three flights from one of its newest bases, Nashville International Airport (BNA), as well as launch a new contender for the shortest route in its network. The new flights from BNA include daily service to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Richmond International Airport (RIC) in Virginia and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) in South Carolina.
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Of these routes, the one from BNA to GSP last operated in 2014; the others are all new to Southwest’s network.
Southwest will also launch a new route from RIC to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) on a twice-daily basis. When it begins, this 121-mile hop will become the second-shortest route in Southwest’s continental U.S. network behind Denver to Colorado Springs, which measures 72 miles long, according to Cirium.
While the airline is making some noteworthy additions, it’s not all good news for the carrier’s network. This summer, it will scrap two routes: Atlanta to Little Rock, Arkansas, and Chicago to Tampa.
Southwest explains that these modifications are being done “with a focus on serving the greatest number of nonstop markets, though in some cases we now will offer fewer frequencies in existing nonstop markets.” (The Chicago-to-Tampa route is currently scheduled to return during the peak winter holiday season.)
The airline is also boosting frequencies on several routes this summer as part of this last-minute adjustment. This includes operating flights from CVG to Orlando International Airport (MCO) on Thursdays to Mondays instead of just on the weekend (as originally planned). Southwest will also add an additional frequency between GSP and BWI and move from Saturday-only service to four-times-weekly service between Kansas City International Airport (MCI) in Missouri and Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) in Mexico.
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Southwest doesn’t typically tweak its network with such short notice, instead opting for bigger changes communicated as part of regular schedule extensions. The airline told TPG that this “re-optimized schedule” is “based on an updated expectation of new aircraft to be delivered into our fleet. In addition to slight tweaks to current flights within our network, the schedule modifications brought an opportunity to support travel demand with new service.”
Like most carriers with Boeing 737 orders, Southwest is facing delivery delays from Boeing for new jet deliveries. This has previously led the carrier to remove some flights from its schedule, such as service from Los Angeles to Maui, Hawaii, but perhaps Southwest was being too conservative with its growth plans given that the airline seemingly anticipates receiving more planes sooner than expected.
The winners, of course, are those who are traveling this summer and can enjoy the airline’s new nonstop flights, which are now all available for sale on Southwest.com.
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