The past few weeks, you may have read about all the airlines that are cutting flights this summer.
- JetBlue has already cut 8-10% of its capacity for May, and expects to do the same for the remainder of the summer.
- American Airlines has said it’s cutting international flights this summer due to a delay in obtaining new Boeing jets.
- United announced they’re cutting service to select cities this summer because its partner, Skywest Airlines, doesn’t have enough pilots to fly the routes.
- Alaska Airlines also cited a pilot shortage as the reason for their cutting 2% of their flights this summer.
And then there’s Southwest Airlines – they just announced they’re adding more flights to its schedule, beginning in early June.The areas that will benefit most from the increased service are Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, and the Caribbean.
“For a gamut of travelers seeking business opportunity, faraway fun, or family time, these new routes and additional flights put the Hospitality and value of Southwest Airlines in front of more of our Customers,” said Andrew Watterson, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “We recently extended our flight schedule to early November, and we’re making available new service sooner for planning early summertime journeys.”
California
Effective June 5, the routes include:
- San Diego and Sacramento – on weekdays, up to 20 times each way
- San Diego and San Jose – on weekdays, up to 20 times each way
- San Diego and Oakland – on weekdays up to 14 times each way
- San Jose and Boise – weekday service twice a day each way
- San Jose and Spokane – weekday service up to twice a day each way
- San Jose and Portland, Ore. – weekday service six times a day each way
- San Jose and Seattle/Tacoma – weekday service six times a day each way
June 5th will also herald new nonstop service once daily between Sacramento and Santa Barbara, as well as between San Jose, CA and Eugene, OR.
Throughout the summer, Southwest will also increase service on these routes:
- San Jose, Calif. and Las Vegas – weekday service up to 13 times a day each way
- San Jose, Calif. and Long Beach, Calif. – weekday service up to four times each way
- San Jose, Calif. and Orange County/Santa Ana, Calif. – weekday service up to 10 times each way
Hawaii
These interisland services in Hawaiian will also begin on June 5th:
- New, once daily service nonstop between Kahului (Maui) and Lihue (Kauai)
- June 5: daily between Honolulu (Oahu) and Kahului will increase to 8 times each way, which will further increase to 11 times each way, beginning September 5th
- September 5: daily between Honolulu (Oahu) and Hilo (Island of Hawaii) will increase to 5 times each way
- June 5: daily between Honolulu (Oahu) and Kona (island of Hawaii) will increase to 5 times each way, which will further increase to 6 times each way, beginning September 5th
- June 5: daily between Honolulu (Oahu) and Lihue (Kauai) will increase to 5 times each way, which will further increase to 6 times each way, beginning September 5th
- Service between Kona (Island of Hawaii) and Kahului (Maui) will operate 2 times per day June 5 through September 4.
Caribbean
Southwest is authorized to offer travel between the U.S. and Cuba and the airline says they’re tripling its service to the Caribbean country. Beginning May 4, they will offer round trip service on the carrier’s Fort Lauderdale-Havana route 3 times per day. Also, beginning May 7, they will offer 1 additional round trip flight, between Tampa and Havana, on Saturdays.
Southwest Airlines’ full schedule of service through Nov. 5, 2022, is available now on Southwest.com.
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7 comments
It seems they didn’t call out though that they’re cutting 1/3 of their flights to mainland in Septmeber…
I suspect they think that may ruin the intended message 😉
The bulk-up by SWA at both SAN and SJC is in directed toward Alaska, especially at SJC.
Maybe, just maybe, SWA will resume the SEA-GEG route that they gave-up on.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
When will southwest start service from (FAR) North Dakota, to (FLL) (MIA) (PBI) (TPA) (FMY) (MCO) ALL VIA connecting HUB CITIES (MDW) OR (STL) OR (MCI) (DAL) Hopefully fall of 2022 or early 2023..
As far as Fargo, me thinks that Allegiant would be your best bet for any expansion beyond what they already serve nonstop to Florida – Orlando Sanford and St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, Frontier dropped the twice weekly nonstop Fargo – Orlando nonstop. Fargo does not have enough passengers to serve all of your suggested destinations to the hub cities. Maybe as a very outlier, when and If Southwest begins to expand their fleet, maybe Denver – but that’s a very long shot.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
About a month ago I made reservations to fly in June PVD-MCO on Southwest. Since then they have changed my flights 4 times. I ended up changing the latest change to fly BDL-MCO instead because there would not be a 3 hour layover on that route. Maybe SWA needs to get their existing routes in order before they add gajillions of flights and day up and down the California coast.
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