Southwest Airlines announced five new non-stop routes Thursday as the carrier extended its booking schedule through Oct. 1.
Several of the new routes will put Southwest into highly competitive markets. Its new Atlanta-Nashville service, for example, will go up against Delta"™s 11 daily round-trip flights on the route. Southwest"™s Denver-Cincinnati route also will face competition, with four other carriers offering either seasonal or year-round service between the cities.
Southwest did not discontinue any year-round non-stop routes in its latest schedule update, though service was significantly reduced on several city-pairs.
That includes five domestic routes that will go from daily service to Saturday-only service. Those routes are Chicago Midway-Boise; Columbus, Ohio-Fort Lauderdale; St. Louis-Panama City, Fla.; Houston Hobby-San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Pittsburgh-Fort Myers, Fla. Another domestic route — Denver-Charleston, S.C. — will go from daily non-stop service to non-stop service only on Saturdays and Sundays.
One domestic seasonal route — Chicago Midway-Panama City, Fla. — will not be returning in this year’s fall schedule. That route had previously operated only on Saturdays.
Five daily weekday round-trip flights begin Aug. 7. Southwest will offer three daily flights on Saturday and Sunday. Delta also flies non-stop on this route, offering 11 round-trip weekday flights according to its summer schedule.
As a promotion, Southwest was offering $19 one-way fares on the route, though those fares are offered only for flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
"Southwest Airline"™ decision to add nonstop service to Atlanta out of Nashville International Airport will be welcomed by travelers to and from Nashville, particularly within the business community, which has long-sought more such service," Doug Kreulen, CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, said in Southwest"™s statement. "This new route brings competition to that market and provides additional options for our passengers»…