New routes: Southwest, United, Spirit, American, JetBlue

In domestic route news, Southwest Airlines is adding a pair of  destinations from Washington D.C., United will start a key business route from San Francisco, Spirit expands at Atlanta and Los Angeles, American will deploy A321s on more Hawaii routes and will provide 787 sampler flights between two hubs this fall, and JetBlue adds a transcontinental winter route.

• Southwest Airlines will shift its Washington D.C. schedules around this winter. On March 9, the airline is due to launch new twice-daily flights between Atlanta and Washington Dulles, as well as one daily roundtrip between Omaha and Washington Reagan National. At the same time, Southwest will drop its existing Chicago Midway-Washington Dulles service, and will cut back San Diego-Washington Dulles to seasonal service only.

• Bay Area companies that do business with Walmart and Sam’s Club will get a new non-stop option this fall. United Airlines is planning to begin new service starting October 25 from San Francisco to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, the gateway for Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark. headquarters. United will use a CRJ700 for the 3.5 hour (yeesh!) flight.

• Low-cost Spirit Airlines will expand its growing presence at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson next month, and will add a new west coast route this fall. On September 10, Spirit is due to kick off new daily service from Atlanta to Boston and to Ft. Myers, Fla.; and on November 12 it will add Los Angeles-Oakland flights.

Don’t miss: Virgin America giving away 6 free tickets to Hawaii. Want one? 

• More new planes from American: The carrier is taking delivery of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, and according to airlinerouite.net, it will deploy one of them on a key domestic route for a couple of weeks this fall. AA is due to fly the 787 between Los Angeles and Dallas/Ft. Worth from November 5 through November 22. Meanwhile, after putting Airbus A321s into service this month from Los Angeles to Honolulu, American is due to add the planes to other Hawaii routes this fall — specifically, Los Angeles-Kona starting September 9, LAX-Maui beginning October 5, and LAX- Kauai as of November 5.

• JetBlue is smacking Virgin America (again) with new seasonal service this winter between its New York JFK base and Palm Springs, California, operating the route five days a week (not Tuesdays or Wednesdays) from January 14 through May 1.  

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Delta’s new Sky Club at San Francisco International + LAX will allow Uber, Lyft pick-ups + British Airways coming to San Jose + Airbnb draws corporate customers