Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

lschofield
Explorer C

(Could also be MSP-BWI Non-Stops...)

Kind of curious about the thinking here.  SWA was running an MSP-BWI non-stop each direction in the morning and evening, and I became quite attached to them.  They also always seemed to be full.  For 2020, they have mostly been eliminated.  I'm not finding any morning flights, and the evening ones have disappeared a lot also.  Am I not searching correctly?

I've come to depend on these flights and don't like the idea of switching to Delta...

5 REPLIES 5

Re: BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

jksobonya
Aviator A

Story of my life! How would you like to be in my shoes, Southwest dropped Philly to Vegas (PHL to LAS) nonstops *a year ago*! My last nonstop was October 2018. It happens. Flight routes change. All you can hope for is that they will re-instate nonstops again, hopefully when the MAX 8 issues are behind us. (And it's not looking like that will be any time soon.) 

 

--Jessica

Re: BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@lschofield wrote:

(Could also be MSP-BWI Non-Stops...)

Kind of curious about the thinking here.  SWA was running an MSP-BWI non-stop each direction in the morning and evening, and I became quite attached to them.  They also always seemed to be full.  For 2020, they have mostly been eliminated.  I'm not finding any morning flights, and the evening ones have disappeared a lot also.  Am I not searching correctly?

I've come to depend on these flights and don't like the idea of switching to Delta...


It's a complex equation, unfortunately just because the flights were full doesn't mean that the flights were the best performers or that the aircraft or gates were being used to their maximum capacity. 

 

The flights were full, but many of the passengers may have been transfering at BWI - maybe there is new direct service from MSP now that goes somewhere else where people were heading.

 

Hopefully you can still use Southwest or the routes come back - don't buy your Delta flights too far in advance in case the routes come back when the Max 8 are returned to service. 

 

I did see an interesting quote though that the shortage of aircraft was affecting the airline in a way that they had to re-evaluate routes, even those that had been in place for a long time and they may try some adjustments, and in many cases the airline realizes they could use the aircraft better in a different way. Sorry I don't have the link to the article. 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

SWDigits
Aviator A

What time period are you searching?  My favorite tool to use is the weekly view of the flight schedule and I see nonstops.

 

Here is a random week at the end of June with nonstops:

https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-schedules/results.html?departureDate=2020-07-01&destinationAirp...

 

Same thing in early August:

https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-schedules/results.html?departureDate=2020-08-02&destinationAirp...


Customer | Home airport DCA

Re: BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

lschofield
Explorer C

Thanks for these links, was useful to search through and see the schedule in better detail.

 

I'm worried they might re-evaluate those schedules further out as the Max 8 thing continues to not resolve itself.  Kayak long term trends show the prices jumping up quite a bit from March forward as well.

Re: BWI-MSP Non-Stops Dropped in 2020

dfwskier
Aviator A

@lschofield wrote:

   Kayak long term trends show the prices jumping up quite a bit from March forward as well.


Two points here

 

1) March is spring break time and prices tend to be higher as a result

 

2)SW has a tendency to price at least some future flights high, and then when seats don't sell, it drops the prices.  When that happens, you can turn in your high pried ticket for a lower priced one and receive travel funds that you can use for a future flight.