2023-02-09 08:00:00

Southwest Airlines is rolling out five new nonstop routes as part of its latest schedule extension, which also will see the carrier restore 16 nonstop routes that had been cut.

Southwest passengers can now book flights through Oct. 4 on some of the routes.

California’s Long Beach Airport (LGB) was the big winner in Thursday’s announcement, landing three new routes.

Daily nonstop service from LGB will begin on July 11 to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and El Paso, Texas. The third route – LGB to Albuquerque, New Mexico – starts Sept. 5.

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They join two other two new LGB routes that Southwest had already announced: daily service to Kansas City and seasonal weekend service to Orlando.

LGB is one of the nation’s few capacity-controlled airports where airlines must obtain “slots” to add new flights. Southwest says its latest additions were possible following the airport added “supplemental slots.”

Once Southwest’s new LGB flights begin, it will serve 22 seasonal and year-round destinations from the airport with up to 45 daily departures.

Southwest also will add two other nonstop flights to its map. Both begin Sept. 9, when the airline will add seasonal, Saturday-only service between Austin and Jacksonville, Florida, and between El Paso and Orlando.

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Where’d that flight go? Wondering what happened to your favorite Southwest route? Here’s what to know

In addition to the new flights announced in Thursday’s update, Southwest will restore 16 routes that had been cut in recent years – many falling off the schedule during the depths of the pandemic. A full list of restored routes is below.

The move will resuscitate nonstop routes, including Austin–Pittsburgh, Baltimore–Oakland and Denver–Richmond, Virginia. It follows a pledge by Southwest executives late last year that the carrier would begin bringing back routes and frequencies as part of a broader effort to boost connectivity across the company’s network.

“It’s part of our overall restoration efforts … responding to demand from Customers,” Southwest spokesperson Dan Landson said in a statement to TPG.

Additionally, eight seasonal routes will return to the airline’s schedule as planned. All operate only on weekends and include city pairs such as Buffalo–Sarasota, Florida; Charlotte–Denver; and Chicago Midway–Reno, Nevada.

Southwest says it is not terminating any routes, though some seasonal routes will pause until their planned resumption later schedules.