Southwest plans to launch service to seven new destinations starting in August, the carrier announced on the first day of Routes Americas.
The route expansion will pit the Texas-based low-cost carrier against several rivals, including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Southwest will expand service from Portland airport with three daily frequencies between Bob Hope airport in Burbank, California and two daily frequencies to Ontario, California.
Alaska operates the same number of frequencies to both airports from Portland.
Two routes now used only by American are also in Southwest’s sights this summer.
Southwest is launching service between Charlotte and Nashville, where American currently operates 56 weekly frequencies using a mix of Airbus single-aisle and Bombardier regional jets.
Where American also operates five weekly frequencies, Southwest is also launching service from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.
Finally, Southwest is also adding service to two destinations with no competition in the market today. Southwest will connect Milwaukee and San Diego, as well as Baltimore/Washington International airport to Sacramento.
Southwest also will add frequencies in six markets, including Denver-LAX, Denver-Nashville, Nashville-LAX, Dallas-Portland, Dallas-San Antonio and Nashville-Fort Lauderdale.
Six more routes will be opened on a seasonal basis, but Southwest will look to add them for year-round service in the future, says David Harvey, Southwest’s managing director of business development.
The new seasonal routes are Fort Lauderdale to Kansas City and Pittsburgh, Houston to Portland and Seattle, Kansas City to Seattle and San Diego to St. Lo
Source: Cirium Dashboard
