Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Southwest Airlines announces new Mexico and Caribbean service

Beginning August 10th, the Dallas-based airline will operate daily service from Cancun, Mexico to Atlanta and Baltimore BWI, along with Saturday service to Milwaukee. San Jose del Cabo will receive daily service from Santa Ana, while Nassau, Bahamas will see Saturday only service to Atlanta.

The carrier will further expand international flights in October, operating daily service from Cancun to Denver starting on the 7th, and San Jose del Cabo to Denver on the 11th.

All of the routes are currently serviced by merger partner Air Tran. Consequently, Southwest will be assuming operations from the subsidiary as the post-merger integration continues.

The flights will be available for purchase through October 31, though post-Wright Amendment flights from Dallas Love remain unavailable.

The airline announced its first international routes in late January of 2014, all to the Caribbean. The flights, also all current Air Tran routes, will service Aruba, Montego Bay, and Nassau from several east coast cities. CEO Gary Kelly reported in a January press conference that 2015 would be the earliest it would consider adding new international destinations, stating that it would be focusing on absorbing the Air Tran network in the meantime. Houston is likely to become the first hub in 2015, followed by Fort Lauderdale, which is currently under construction to accommodate the growth, in 2017.

(Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren)

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