If you happen to haven’t observed, Southwest has been including new markets left and proper as of late. It’s been a very long time for the reason that airline did that, having beforehand moved up its complete multi-year plan to start out throughout COVID. However now, with one exception, Southwest seems to be coming into its leisure period, including new dots to the map that Fast Rewards members will wish to go to.
Since 2012, Southwest has added an unbelievable 62 new airports to its route map, 50 of that are nonetheless right here right now. However these can typically be damaged down into one among six eras. For all you Swifties on the market, you’ll get pleasure from this.
The AirTran Period: 2012 – 2013
It was 2011 when Southwest purchased AirTran to kill a lower-cost competitor. It did that fairly effectively, however it additionally added a complete bunch of latest home cities that have been smaller than what Southwest was used to serving. It put its personal B737s in these markets, and a few of them labored. Others didn’t.
Maps generated by the Nice Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz., yellow continues to be served, crimson isn’t
Okay, okay, so taking a look at this listing right now, the Washington/Nationwide (DCA) dot isn’t just like the others. However it’s true that Southwest didn’t fly to DCA till it purchased AirTran. It, after all, acquired extra slots later. However for the remainder of these, it was about including service to extra mid-size airports that didn’t match the same old Southwest mannequin.
Apart from DCA, these are all fairly small markets for Southwest. Memphis is the largest with about 12 day by day flights. So whereas they have been good dots so as to add to the map, they weren’t all that vital within the scheme of issues.
The Worldwide Period: 2014 – 2015 (okay, and somewhat 2017)
To be truthful, this period of flying outdoors the US was actually half two of the AirTran period. It took without end, however Southwest finally coaxed its techniques into having the ability to deal with service outdoors the Continental US.
Southwest had much more success on this period, as a result of these have been markets that might simply fill a B737 with joyful vacationers.
Maps generated by the Nice Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz. yellow continues to be served, crimson isn’t
San Juan is about the identical dimension as Memphis, and Cancún is even somewhat bigger. However typically, these aren’t big markets. In fact, the distinction is that these are leisure markets the place it’s virtually fully about vacation spot visitors on peak leisure days.
What do I imply?
Full 12 months 2025 Southwest Departures by Day of Week
Information by way of Cirium
Not coincidentally, when Southwest began these worldwide flights, it used its new Amadeus system, as a result of it’s previous system couldn’t deal with it. The flexibility to higher run day-of-week flying was key to creating these markets work.
The one one which didn’t make it? That was Mexico Metropolis. Southwest might have improved its capabilities, however it by no means found out easy methods to take fee in Mexican Pesos (or any international forex). Let’s not even get into the schedule occasions. Not like the remaining, Mexico Metropolis was an origin market that simply wasn’t going to work.
The Opportunistic Period: 2016
Sure, this can be a little bit of stretch to name this a single period, however it was in 2016 when two alternatives hit Southwest. It jumped into 4 new airports consequently.
The primary was Cuba. When Cuba flying opened up, Southwest determined to dive proper in. Not solely did it serve Havana, however it additionally went into Santa Clara and Varadero. The latter two solely made it into 2017. Havana itself continues to be flying right now, however Southwest is simply operating a single day by day flight from Tampa. That journey hasn’t been a house run.
The second was Lengthy Seashore. When the airport’s noise dropped due to newer plane, extra slots have been opened as much as match throughout the noise ordinance. Southwest poked its nostril in with Oakland flights and JetBlue… effectively, it didn’t go effectively for JetBlue. Over time, Southwest picked up extra slots till right now when it has practically all the pieces flying on the airport. With round 40 day by day flights to 17 locations, Lengthy Seashore is likely one of the greater stations that Southwest has began in current occasions. It does much better there than JetBlue ever did, however it’s additionally not a runaway success.
The Hawaiʻi Period: 2019
Simply earlier than the pandemic, Southwest lastly received its fleet ETOPS certification and it started flying to Hawaiʻi. Not solely did it go to the 5 largest markets, however it flew between them too. This was a really large shift for Southwest.
For years, Southwest struggled to make this purposeful, however just lately efficiency has improved. Q3 2024 was the primary time the Hawaiʻi – mainland market produced stage length-adjusted unit income over 10 cents.
Maps generated by the Nice Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
This will likely have some extra maturing to do, however itʻs a key piece of the community for Southwest that isnʻt going anyplace. With greater than 70 day by day flights on common in 2025 that touched one of many islands on at the least one finish, this can be a large funding. Southwestʻs rationale was that to essentially be capable of win in California, you need to serve one of the crucial vital leisure locations from the state. This foreshadows what would come sooner or later.
The COVID Period: 2020 – 2021
As soon as COVID hit, airways began dropping cash like loopy, however Southwest determined it could be loopy differently. It appears to have taken years of potential future development markets and moved them ahead right into a 2020/2021 blizzard of insanity.
Maps generated by the Nice Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz., yellow continues to be served, crimson isn’t
These didnʻt all fall into one particular market kind. You had the seashore routes within the Southeast. There have been the ski routes within the Mountain West. You had smaller cities on the West Coast. There have been strikes into main airports the place Southwest served the secondary: Chicago/OʻHare and Houston/IAH. Then there was Jackson. That will need to have been a political favor.
A few of these have been wildly unsuccessful. These 4 crimson dots on the map have been reduce in a short time as soon as the airline began getting strain from its traders (ahem, Elliott) to wash up its act. There was no time to attend for them to mature.
Others have struggled. Thereʻs OʻHare which has already seen a number of completely different methods tried with completely different routes. Or thereʻs Palm Springs which already misplaced Portland (OR) and Phoenix however gained Austin and Chicago/Halfway. This has been one large trial-and-error session. Itʻs not simple attempting to mature so many markets directly.
The largest of those markets that stay? Miami and Sarasota together with Colorado Springs and OʻHare.
The Leisure Period: 2025 –
Southwestʻs final new metropolis began in 2021, after which there was a five-year break. However beginning this 12 months, Southwest started including new cities to the map. And to this point, it appears to be like like weʻre coming into the leisure period for the airline. We now have, after all, already seen this earlier than with The Worldwide Period and a few of the COVID markets, however this appears to be a bit extra of a targeted effort.
St Thomas and St Maarten within the Caribbean start subsequent 12 months, as do Anchorage and Santa Rosa within the West. Santa Rosa might have some extra native enchantment than the others will, however this nonetheless fairly clearly appears to be like like a vacation spot technique. The one outlier? Knoxville. Certain, a few of it’s possible you’ll be going to see the Wigsphere Sunsphere, however thatʻs in all probability extra just like the markets of The AirTran Period than the rest.
The distinction now? That candy, candy loyalty cash is simply too large to disregard. Southwest desires these dots on the map so you should use Fast Rewards factors to drink wine in Napa with your folks, go on an Alaskan cruise, watch airplanes on Maho Seashore (no? is that simply me?), or do no matter folks do in St Thomas.
I think about there can be extra coming to the community earlier than this period involves an in depth.
