Southwest will add 10 domestic routes next spring. (Image: Jim Glab)
In domestic route news, Southwest unveils 10 new domestic markets it will enter next spring; Virgin American adds a new route out of Dallas Love Field; Alaska begins a west coast route next week, and American Airlines begins new service from LaGuardia.
Southwest Airlines said it plans to start flying 10 new domestic routes on April 12, 2016. From Chicago Midway, it will add flights to Dayton, Ohio; Flint, Mich. and Grand Rapids, Mich. New routes from St. Louis will include Des Moines, Iowa; Wichita, Kans. and Pittsburgh (starts March 10). Southwest will also begin flying from Newark Liberty International to Las Vegas and Orlando, and will switch its St. Louis-Seattle service to year-round instead of seasonal.
Southwest also has some previously announced new routes starting on November 1, including daily flights between Oakland-Atlanta, Austin-Boston, Austin-Seattle, Denver-Cleveland, LaGuardia-Indianapolis and Washington Reagan National-Orlando. New international routes starting November 1 include daily flights from Denver to Puerto Vallarta and Houston Hobby to Liberia, Costa Rica and Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Virgin America Airlines has set a December 1 launch for new service between Dallas Love Field and Las Vegas — a route thoroughly dominated by Southwest. Virgin said it will offer two daily roundtrips on the route. One of the flights will be a red-eye leaving Las Vegas at 1:30 a.m. and arriving in Dallas at 6:10 a.m.
November 5 is the starting date for new Alaska Airlines service linking Los Angeles International with Monterey, Calif. — a route that American dropped last month. United also flies the route. Alaska will serve the route with a Horizon Air 76-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop.
Also on November 5, American Airlines is set to begin new service from New York LaGuardia to a pair of domestic destinations: Akron, Ohio and Memphis, Tenn. On the same date, American will start flying from Charlotte, N.C. to Springfield, Mo.
NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Global Entry gets more global + New York’s lowest ranked hotels +Best/worst hotel programs for awards + More flat seats
Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!
Please join the 100,000+ people who read TravelSkills every month! Sign up here for one email-per-day updates!
Low prices CAUSES full planes. Obviously.
To be clear, AA is not operating from LGA to MEM; service is provided by Republic on E75s. For CAK to LGA, service is via PSA on a CRJ (ugh!). For CLT to SGF, service is via Envoy on ER4 (also ugh!).
Several analysts have commented on Southwest’s PRASM upside and how Southwest’s revenue is positioned to grow in 2016. That’s certainly my own experience; I am flying Southwest this evening from SFO to LAS round-trip for $88 (advance purchase, of course). With planes as full as they are these days, I’m surprised at these low prices. But not complaining.
Headline is wrong. Virgin is not expanding at Love Field. All they did was dropped Austin and replaced it with Las Vegas.