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Fall Schedule Open—And We’re Putting the Intl in Ft. Lauderdale International Airport!

Bill
Employee
Employee
Today’s the day! We have extended our open-for-sale date from August 6 through November 4 of this year, but we have even bigger news to share. Effective August 7, we will add Southwest’s first-ever international service from Ft. Lauderdale! Our new service between Ft. Lauderdale and Nassau is made possible by international documentation preclearance available at the Nassau International Airport. But make no mistake—it’s still an international flight, so don’t just bring your suntan lotion, bring your passport, too! Interesting service note:  you might remember that we did something very similar at Houston/Hobby before the Houston International Terminal opened. Then, it was service between Houston-Aruba, which is also a preclear destination. Besides being a good business decision from a traffic development perspective, adding limited precleared international service like these two routes before the main international terminal opens at those airports gives our local SWA Family a chance to get their feet wet (or stick their toes in the sand, as the case may be!) with their first international nonstop service. We have several new markets to tell you about, all of them with one weekday roundtrip, and all intended to be permanent!
  • Baltimore/Washington-Sacramento
  • Burbank-Portland, OR
  • Charlotte-Nashville
  • Ft. Lauderdale-Nassau
  • Los Angeles-Pittsburgh
  • Milwaukee-San Diego
  • Ontario, CA-Portland
  A couple of interesting notes about our new nonstop markets.
  • Ft. Lauderdale-Nassau, discussed above, will be our shortest international nonstop market by a long shot! At just 183 nonstop miles it’s only one mile shorter than Dallas/Love-Austin—but still longer than current shortest nonstop domestic market in our system, Houston/Hobby-Austin.
  • And Milwaukee-San Diego is a returning nonstop market, last served by Southwest last summer, in 2015.
  • Of course, you will notice that there is no mention of Long Beach. Long story short? We’re not ready yet.  There remain lot of regulations, procedures, and approvals yet to obtain. We’ll let you know as soon as everything is ready to be published!
Elsewhere around the network, weather-wise, this is always one of the quieter times of the year (with the exception of the occasional tropical system!). It’s also quieter from a traffic standpoint, with the summertime vacation travel ending as the kids go back to school. Following those trends, you’ll find adjustments to block times as well as to frequency. Overall, 106  existing roundtrip markets will see minor decreases in frequency while 20 roundtrip markets will see increases. The August schedule initially has approximately 3,700 weekday departures—and you can find a full list of nonstop markets with weekday frequencies in the attached spreadsheet. As always if you have questions—just ask.  Have a great day and a fantastic weekend!  
10 Comments
sewing
Explorer C
The 25% reduction in service to Portland, Maine (PWM) is disappointing.
skycubbie
Explorer C
Good to see Akron-Canton as safe on the calendar. Will Southwest restore any of the cut routes, such as to Chicago-Midway, or to Orlando?
mikebarnbaum
Explorer A
Thank you for adding Sacramento to Baltimore as a nonstop route, effective Sunday 7 August 2016. This is a very important route for the people of the Sacramento Region and the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce when they and their members travel on the Annual "Cap-To-Cap" trip. This trip has the largest delegation of its kind meeting with a large congressional delegation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. This becoming a nonstop flight on the previously aforementioned date bodes well versus an itinerary that involves a change of planes and a layover, so thank you for adding this route to your long list of nonstop destinations out of Sacramento International Airport. Speaking of layovers and plane changes, I happened to, earlier today, to book a one-way flight from Salt Lake City to Sacramento in September, but had noticed that the only flight (based on routing) that I could book without changing planes was a one stop same plane flight that stops in Phoenix, but as I previously stated, does not change planes. I frowned a bit at the list of Salt Lake City to Sacramento flights in September, solely because there were no nonstops to be found. For future reference, and future schedule openings, could you consider nonstop flights between Salt Lake City and Sacramento? Thank you, I would appreciate it. Thank you for what you have come up with as far as Sacramento to Baltimore is concerned. I look forward to the next schedule opening on or about Thursday 2 June 2016. Take good care. I will see you all onboard a Southwest flight soon. Sincerely, Rapid Rewards Member and Blogger, Mike Barnbaum of Sacramento, California
stevexc500
Explorer B
Hey Bill! Thanks for the update. Looks like MSP is still going well and now we have BWI service 2x daily in April, continuing with the summer schedule. Would still LUV to see LAS (I know it is highly competitive, but one cannot resist!). Also on my personal radar, BOS/NYC, LAX, and HOU or DAL. Would be awesome!
Bill
Employee
Employee
Scott, sorry to disappoint, but PWM usually only has 3 BWI trips. The 4th was a summer add, and by reducing down to 3 we're just back to where we usually are--so I think characterizing it as a "25% reduction" while mathematically correct is a little harsh! Either way--I appreciate the comment! //Bill
Bill
Employee
Employee
Marc, for now we're pretty happy with our current service pattern at CAK but you never know what the future can bring! (Trust me, at my age, that's been proven over and over and over again!!!) //Bill
Bill
Employee
Employee
Hi Mike! Hope you're well. We're very eager to see how SMF-BWI works out. It is, as you say, a "Cap-To-Cap" market, and while there is a competing nonstop to IAD as we all know it's a lot easier to get into the District from BWI. SMF-Salt Lake may be a little more problematic--let's digest what we've got now and what we've announced and go from there! //Bill
jtighe
Explorer C
bill. as a frequent cak flyer. the new schedule has not been tested it starts with a reduction of all fla service starting 4/12. it will be 3 flights to atl swa willhave NO ne ohio non stop service to florida after this date. limited sat service will start in the fall but it is only once a week
stevexc500
Explorer B
Hey Bill! Thanks for the update. Looks like MSP is still going well and now we have BWI service 2x daily in April, continuing with the summer schedule. Would still LUV to see LAS (I know it is highly competitive, but one cannot resist!). Also on my personal radar, BOS/NYC, LAX, and HOU or DAL. Would be awesome! - See more at: http://www.blogsouthwest.com/1605919-2/#comments
saac
Explorer C

Can we arrange one great, convenient parking for all of us at Hobby Airport? It seems the lots are scattered around the airport. It would be great to get 300 places just for us at the big parking structure at the foot of the airport entry ramp