Southwest Airlines is making some interesting new additions to its route map.
The Dallas-based carrier filed plans to add eight new domestic routes over the weekend, as first seen in the Sirius schedule and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.
A full list of new routes is available below.
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- Austin to San Francisco
- Nashville to Louisville
- Indianapolis to Chicago Midway
- Los Angeles to Orlando
- Orlando to Miami
- Orlando to West Palm Beach, Florida
- Orlando to Sarasota, Florida
- Phoenix to Santa Barbara, California
All the new routes will take off next summer in August 2025.
Southwest has previously flown three new routes, although the long-dormant Orlando to West Palm Beach route last operated in April 2002. Returning after a much shorter hiatus is Indianapolis to Chicago Midway, a Southwest route that last flew in August 2020.
Most of the new routes will operate on a daily basis. The exceptions are Phoenix to Santa Barbara, which will be flown only on Sundays, and Nashville to Louisville, which will operate six days a week with Saturday off.
Southwest’s additions include some interesting new city pairs – especially in Florida. Four of the eight routes are to Orlando, one of Southwest’s operating bases. While the city will see a new transcon to Los Angeles (already well-served by American, Delta and United), three routes will be shorter intra-Florida services.
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Two will be to South Florida (Miami and West Palm Beach), while the third will be an incredibly short 104-mile hop to Sarasota. (The odds are you’ll be taxiing longer than you’ll be in the air; the flight is blocked for an hour.)
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Orlando to Miami is already served by American and Delta (and Spirit recently had a short time in the market that was cut short).
Elsewhere, Southwest’s addition to Austin follows Delta’s addition of the exact same route just a few weeks ago. While Southwest is Austin’s largest airline, Delta has been growing there in recent years.
Finally, the new route from Nashville to Louisville comes as Southwest looks to refocus its energy away from Atlanta to the southeast and into Nashville.
Earlier this year, the airline opened its newest flight crew base in Nashville, and it plans to increase Sunday departures from the city to its highest level ever next year.
The airline added six new routes from Nashville in September, while simultaneously cutting 15 markets from Atlanta. Interestingly, Southwest is also trying interstate service in Tennessee with new service from Nashville to Memphis next year.
The airline recently extended its booking window to Oct. All these steps have been taken by extending to 1.
Southwest declined to make a statement about the new routes, but it did refer to its latest An 8-K report was filed earlier this month which provides a snippet into the carrier’s plans to increase profitability.
“Strategic actions include network optimization and capacity rationalization, improved marketing and distribution evolution, and continued efforts to advance revenue management techniques,” the filing says.
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