FROM THE ROCKIES TO LA PLAYA: DENVER-CANCUN NONSTOPS BEGIN TODAY!

[Bill]

It’s a wonderful day at Southwest and our subsidiary, AirTran!  Today marks the first in a series of new International routes that AirTran will be starting over the next couple of months.  Brand new nonstop service between Denver and Cancun, Mexico, takes to the sky today with the scheduled 10:40 a.m. departure of AirTran flight 74, which will arrive Cancun at 3:25 p.m. local time.  Returning, AirTran flight 75 will depart Cancun at 4:20 p.m. local time and arrive Denver sin parar (nonstop!) at 7:30 p.m. Mountain time.  AirTran will operate the flight daily through July 7^th, and then daily except Monday and Friday through August 12, and on Saturdays and Sundays only through November 2^nd (the end of the available schedule).

Of course, neither of these are new markets for us.  AirTran has served Denver for nearly a decade since starting service in May of 2002, and has served Cancun since February of 2009.  But this does mark the first international service AirTran has ever offered out of Denver, and it joins existing nonstop AirTran service from Denver to Atlanta and Milwaukee.  Together, Southwest and AirTran offer 166 weekday departures from Denver to 52 destinations from the Atlantic to the Pacific—and now, with Cancun, the Caribbean!

But we’re just getting started.  Next month, we open two more new nonstop Mexico markets.  On May 24^th, AirTran will start daily nonstop service between San Antonio and Mexico City*, and four weekly nonstops between San Antonio and Cancun.  The next day, we’ll start four weekly nonstop Austin-Cancun roundtrips.  Then, on June 3^rd, we inaugurate the first ever nonstop service to Mexico from Orange County’s new International terminal with daily roundtrip nonstops between Orange County and both Cabo San Lucas/San Jose Del Cabo and Mexico City*.  That same day we begin our recently-awarded nonstops between Chicago-Midway and Cancun*.

Join me in celebrating the new service by enjoying a nice chilled beverage with a little umbrella in it…after 5:00 p.m., of course. Have a great week, everyone!

*pending foreign government approval