Update: Southwest will begin flying the following routes on 11/15:
- Miami to/from Baltimore (5 daily nonstops)
- Miami to/from Chicago/MDW (1 daily nonstop)
- Miami to/from Houston/HOU (4 daily nonstops)
- Miami to/from Tampa (3 daily nonstops)
- Palm Springs to/from Denver (1 daily nonstop)
- Palm Springs to/from Oakland (2 daily nonstops)
- Palm Springs to/from Phoenix (3 daily nonstops)
Don’t forget that you can currently get systemwide free changes with no fare difference and you can transfer points from Chase with a 20% bonus!
Originally posted on 9/3:
Southwest announced today that they will add year-round flights to Miami and Palm Springs in 2020.
This will be the first time that Southwest has operated to those airports, though they do fly to nearby Fort Lauderdale and Ontario, CA.
Palm Springs is a great winter destination, but flights can be pricey. The Southwest effect should help with that.
Southwest will announce which cities they will fly to Miami and Palm Springs at a later date. Which routes do you think they will fly?
This winter’s route map for many airlines will be heavily focused on point to point flights to warm spots instead of hub flights. The hub model is catered towards lucrative business passengers, but business travel is expected to recover much slower than leisure travel, so airlines have been racing to add more flights to leisure destinations.
Previously, JetBlue added dozens of new flight routes to California and Florida and then United added many Florida flights as well. American is also adding nonstop flights like JFK, Austin, and Sacramento to Los Cabos and Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham and S. Louis to Cancun.
I wrote previously about JetBlue shifting their Long Beach, CA operations to LAX starting on 10/7.
Long Beach is a slot controlled airport, so their abandoned slots were offered to other airlines. Southwest has won all 17 of JetBlue’s slots there and will have a major presence in Long Beach with 34 total slots, compared to 12 for Delta, 3 for American, and 2 for Hawaiian. Each slot allows for one daily takeoff and landing.
Will you fly Southwest to Long Beach, Miami, or Palm Springs?
They would be quite foolish to not fly EWR-MIA.
Was a bit surprising when they killed EWR-FLL, but with Spirit, Jetblue & United flying that route, made it harder to compete. Neither of the above fly to MIA so should be able to a better dynamic for them to succeed.
EWR-MIA isn’t happening, but LGA-MIA, ISP-MIA, BWI-MIA, or PHL-MIA are certainly possibilities.
Can you explain why not?
Because they just abandoned EWR. They’re not going back anytime soon.
Southwest left Newark.
As someone who used to fly HPN-PBI/FLL and BDL-PBI/FLL I have no problem doing ISP-MIA if the price is right
ISP is a real schlep from HPN.
I wish we can get southwest to JFK. American is squatting on their slots and doing nothing with them, Southwest can use that.
Not going to happen, slots are too pricey. My guess is American will give some slots to JetBlue as part of their new partnership.
why not to MCO? No direct flights there.
Southwest has a large presence at MCO.
I meant non-stop from LGA.
Yay to Palm Springs! (assuming they will fly from NY)
Once United discontinued the route in January, Jetblue remained the only nonstop option.
Won’t happen from NYC-PSP.
They don’t have any JFK slots, they abandoned EWR recently, and flights from LGA can’t go to CA due to the perimeter rule.
As someone living in Midwood Brooklyn, I only fly out of JFK. LaGuardia is still a 3rd world country to get to. Endless traffic just getting into the airport. Newark doesn’t pay, as the roundtrip tolls with ezpass is at least $25, so what am I saving? Whatever airline fly’s out of JFK, we take. If Southwest were to fly out of JFK, we’ll use them. Until that time, it’s either AA or Delta to Miami (no FLL), whichever is cheaper.
If your practical you’d spend the $25 for the often cheaper fares out of ewr. That’s the deal with living in NYC traffic…
I am with you on that. I avoid LGA as much as possible.
My exception is if I am taking a flight in the evening and will go there from my workplace in Midtown, LGA is better than JFK in that case.
Though from Brooklyn (CH) it is JFK any day over LGA.
Don’t discount ISP so quickly. Yes, it’s an extra 30-45 mins out of the way depending on your location, but it has many advantages. Parking there is cheap and you can literally park your car and walk to the terminal in 5 mins. No Port Authority cops to yell at you to move your car. Much smaller in space in crowds– big pro in this COVID-19 world. Usually only a matter of minutes from the time that the plane doors close until take-off. Etc…
Great news! I love the Long Beach airport!
PIT-MIA or CLE-MIA would be ideal. I hate AA’s subsidiary, American Eagle. Rude staff and small planes.
What NYC airport with southwest use for Palm Springs and Long Beach? I’m a frequent traveler to both and have sorely missed JetBlue at LGB.
Happy about SW starting Mia service. We need a quality provider with nationwide routes that will deliver better service than AA
I sure hope lga to Miami. Still can’t understand why they killed the fll route. I have no idea how it could not have been profitable
I’m trying to figure out what an airline does with an odd number of slots. If you have 17, do you allow 9 to land and only 8 to leave, holding the extra plane for a breakdown? Or do you allow 8 to land and assemble another one at the airport from a kit that is trucked in?
“Each slot allows for one daily takeoff and landing.”
Here are my takeaways:
1. PSP & LGB are Southwest type airports: Small and Few Flights. This works with their model: turnaround flights quickly. MIA would’ve never been considered in Herb Keller’s hayday.
2. Southwest will probably move in and occupy the dreadful G concourse.
3. Sorry NY, you’re not getting non-stop Miami service with Southwest anytime soon. WN has never been NY centric. I’d say domestically, BWI, DAL, MDW, STL will come first. But I think they will use some slots for international flights like MBJ and SJO. But I honestly I think this is a bigger move for when the MAX comes back into service. Once they have long range aircraft they will easily be able to expand into South America. AA, you’ve been put on notice.
4. LGA’s remodel looks impressive but is a pain. You now have to walk forever when flying from Terminal B. Door to Gate time is a HUGE factor for me personally. I usually arrive at the airport after boarding has begun and it is therefore important that I am able to get to the gate quickly. Also, The gate area in Terminal B, is aesthetically unpleasing. Feels like a homeless shelter. I choose LGA when I know I am flying out of Terminal C.
Int’l slots were my first thought for MIA – that said until we turn a corner on COVID it’s only just interesting.
I don’t think they’d use their slots to the Caribbean from MIA. They’d probably wait for a long range aircraft until going international from MIA. It seems like BMAX issues will out live covid.
Southwest has been the best airline for years. Free two bags (for a family, this could save hundreds of dollars a trip), the companion pass, great change policy, their random “change flight and not pay difference in fare” moments, wifi/TV on flights, and they fly to all key hotspots in the US (NY flight options not as great.)
A real pity southwest has no direct routes from either EWR, LGA ,JFK or PHL to any So Cal Airports ( LAX, BUR, SNA, LGB, ONT, or even SAN)
That’s not really a hub or their model. There are plenty of SoCal to BWI, MDW, and DAL flights so you can fly it with 1 stop.
Their aircrafts don’t have that kind of range.
I don’t think that I would call it “winning” all of the slots. The slots were offered to the other airlines that currently operate out of Long Beach and no one was interested in them. If another airline wanted one, they would have gotten one.
they removed the FLL-LAS , do you think that will come back ? or from Miami
wow! cant believe they are flying BWI-MIA when they already fly BWI-FLL 11 times daily!
Dan you reported recently that Southwest was Goingto fly out of lga or jfk to Florida (pbi fll it mia-dnt remember which airport) when this going into effect? Thanks