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Possibility of new route to Medford, Oregon

mwallace
Explorer C

Hi, 

I have been a southwest member of my own for a few years now and when I was growing up my large family would always fly southwest because of the amazing deals. I have moved to Medford, Oregon and it is a growing community with a smaller international airport. Since I love flying with southwest so much, I was willing to book a flight in Sacramento, CA (5 or 6 hours away from me) just so that I could book a southwest flight. The only other southwest option for me would be Portland, Oregon (which is about 4.5 hours from me). Is there any thought about expanding to an airport near this area soon? 

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Possibility of new route to Medford, Oregon

elijahbrantley
Aviator A
Solution

@mwallace I visited the Medford area a few years ago and found it very lovely!  I especially enjoyed 2Hawk Vinyard and Winery!  Anyway...

 

You will likely not get an answer for your feedback here since this is primarly a customer-drived community.  SW is in a situation where planes are at a premium due to the grounding of 737 MAX, so I doubt we will be seeing new locations opened soon.

 

Use the Contact Us link below to look at ways to provide your feedback directly to SW, and happy flying!

 

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: Possibility of new route to Medford, Oregon

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@elijahbrantley wrote:

@mwallace I visited the Medford area a few years ago and found it very lovely!  I especially enjoyed 2Hawk Vinyard and Winery!  Anyway...

 

You will likely not get an answer for your feedback here since this is primarly a customer-drived community.  SW is in a situation where planes are at a premium due to the grounding of 737 MAX, so I doubt we will be seeing new locations opened soon.

 

Use the Contact Us link below to look at ways to provide your feedback directly to SW, and happy flying!

 


That's exactly it @mwallace to use the contact us to suggest a demand. 

 

There are a few factors that would need to be evaluated - Southwest flies 737 aircraft exclusively so there would have to be demand in a quantity that a relatively larger aircraft could be filled. 

 

Looking at Wikipedia for the airport it looks like about 1M passengers per year. I'd compare it to another Southwest airport that I visited recently - Pensacola, which has 2M passengers per year, Southwest serving about 100,000 of those on basically two routes to and from Nashville and Houston Hobby with three planes a day. 

 

It seems to be viable there based on those figures, so perhaps Medford could also support Southwest service if they could justify that many flights per day and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000+ passengers per year.

 

Gate availability would also be a factor - is there a space for Southwest to build out their operations? (I've never been so I don't know this first hand - it's an obstacle at many of the larger airports where airlines control the gate assignments and none are available for expansion without builing new concourses or terminals.)

 

 

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

Re: Possibility of new route to Medford, Oregon

SPEEDCAT
Explorer C

Medford does have the capability of operating the B737, even as big as the -900.  So if Southwest starts service here, it will likely be with the -700, which KMFR can handle just fine. The B737’s competitor, the A320 family, visits on an almost daily basis.

Re: Possibility of new route to Medford, Oregon

lketchie
Explorer C

Hi - please add new route into Medford! The area is beautiful and we go there at least 4 times a year.  There is hiking, river for kayaking, fishing, and multiple vineyards. The United and Alaska flights are typically full - especially during Shakespeare festival. I have been with Southwest since 1993 and travel a lot for business. Flying into Medford is one of few times I don’t fly Southwest. Portland and Sac are too far away. Eugene is closer but it is 4 hours away on treacherous mountain road - in winter it was horrible- we tried. Please add flight into Medford.