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SUMMER, 2010: EVERYONE CAN PARTY!

Bill
Employee
Employee

NEWS FLASH:  This morning, Summer, 2010 becomes bookable!  Seats are available for booking from today all the way out until August 13, giving us 241 days of bookable inventory, which I'm pretty sure is a new record (for Southwest, anyway). Those of you that have been longtime readers of this blog will remember the absolute thrashing I got a couple of years back about not being out for sale further in advance (you can reread the post and its comments here, and the followup I posted a short time later here).  I can assure you all that I certainly remember it....I'm still in therapy for it.  But my point is that we heard you, loudly, clearly, PAINFULLY, and we're constantly working now to make our schedule available further and further in advance for your booking and planning pleasure!

There is lots of good, new stuff is in the Summer '10 Schedule.  While we're not adding airplanes, we're able to add flights next summer by taking advantage of the shorter flying times that are made possible by more favorable summertime winds--and using our schedule optimizer to "stitch" that time together in ways that are usable for added flying  (have I bragged about our schedule optimizer lately??).  We're also implementing lots of frequency changes, shifting capacity from winter markets into summer ones.  In total we're adding a net gain of 82 one-way flights across the nation, and because I know how much you LUV 'em, I've linked a summary of market-by-market changes summarized into two .pdf files--one for weekday changes, and a separate one for all of the Saturday changes. 

First and foremost:  we're adding our 69th airport, Panama City Beach, effective May 23rd!  (Yes, this is a few days later than the rest of the May schedule additions.) We'll be the first new airline flying to a brand new eco-friendly airport serving the Northwest Florida Beaches, and the airport code assigned to the new city couldn't be more appropriate--ECP (Everyone Can Party!).  We'll serve four nonstop destinations from Panama City Beach (Nashville, Houston, Baltimore/Washington, and Orlando), with direct and connecting service to 58 other Southwest airports, so nearly everyone on the LUV Network can visit the incredibly beautiful white beaches, crystal blue waters, and laid-back, friendly people along the Northwest Florida coast.

Besides ECP, we're bringing back a number of "old favorites" for the summer, like nonstops between Nashville and Oakland and between Norfolk and Las Vegas.  We're bringing back transcon nonstops between Baltimore/Washington and Los Angeles as well as our first-ever Baltimore/Washington-Seattle nonstop service.  Baltimore/Washington, in fact, scores in this schedule big-time with the addition of ten more daily departures (bringing our total daily departure count at BWI to 181--the most Southwest has ever had!).  Other big winners are Nashville (nine added flights), and Seattle (eight added flights).  St. Louis also is in the "winner's circle" next summer, with ten added daily departures and a whopping eight new nonstop markets--including service from Lambert to Los Angeles, San Diego, Raleigh/Durham, New Orleans, and **finally** adding nonstops in one of our most-frequently-asked about markets, St. Louis-Nashville.  These schedule additions bring us up to 83 daily departures from St. Louis, the most we've had in over a decade.

Of course, I've got news involving Denver!  We're expanding our Mile-High Success Story by adding nine more departures to and from Denver to existing destinations like Spokane, Baltimore, Tampa, and cities in California, and Saturday-only new nonstop service between Denver and New York's LaGuardia Airport (gotta love "slotless Satudays!").  And we're not done yet--we'll be adding even more Denver service later in the summer.....and you'll hear about it first here at "Nuts About Southwest!"

Happy booking, everyone!  I'll be watching for comments and questions as they come through and will be happy to respond to any questions/comments you have.  Make some summer plans, y'all, and remember...starting next May--Everyone Can Party!

51 Comments
alex-trude
Explorer C
Good things come to those who wait, better things come to those who go AFTER it!" This is awesome to see! So glad to see so many new flights at STL now! I am surprised to a return of transcon for BWI-LAX, but a great addition with BWI-SEA and BWI-SAN! Way to go! Looking forward to hearing of more flights! Any chance of DEN-BUR, this would then complete the "map" and you will have service to every single WN city west of DEN out of DEN and in California from DEN! Alex
Jerry_R
Explorer C
Watch out for bird strikes. Last I saw that new airport was under water.
tusphotog
Explorer A
Seattle-Baltimore nonstop? Going after AirTran I see... For once, I was happy to see no cuts to TUS, although the lack of a TUS-LGA published flight is a big letdown....again. Same with the outbound schedule to PDX. For us who go up there for work, it would be real nice to get in before noon.
Will2
Explorer C
Bill, Why can't I book Christmas 2014!?!?! ;-) (You knew it was coming) Great job communicating the changes and thanks for the charts. I've have some excited STL folks of late, and I'm sure BNA will appreciate the LUV ;-) Merry Christmas, my friend, and thanks for the early present. Will
Michelle16
Explorer C
This airport does not go under water --- you must be thinking about the ones in Sotuh Florida.. They go under water, but you have to watch out for the alligators coming to get you! LOL! Come enjoy the beaches and we will vacation in your home town.
Anonymous4003
Explorer C
@tusphotog -- LGA is slot controlled, and has a "distance limit" -- which essentially means that you can't have nonstop service beyond a certain distance. Because of that, nonstop service from LGA to TUS, even if there were enough demand for it, would be impossible. You would have to connect somewhere (DEN perhaps?)
Anonymous3237
Explorer A
Any chance you could expand at PBI? There are so many cities that Southwest serves that we can't get to from here. Maybe if you added St. Louis or Houston, it would help a lot.
H_X
Explorer C
I'm happy to see the additional RDU flights. Any chance of RDU getting even more WN flights like Nashville, St. Louis, and San Jose already have? After all, they're all former AA hubs.
Anonymous2953
Explorer C
Was really hoping for a direct flight from Chicago to Panama City Beach. Very disappointing!
ECP_Sucks
Explorer C
Are you kidding me? Everyone can party? Anyone who has ever been to Panama City in the summer knows that everything is boarded up. Worst trip I have ever taken. SO BORING.
Anonymous548
Explorer A
Bill, On behalf of Nashville... to you and your team.. THANK YOU!
Anonymous2361
Explorer C
Please start flights on MAY 22! Most vacation rentals there run from Saturday to Saturday.
Jeff_A_
Explorer C
Has Albany to San Jose, CA been discontinued? Unable to find flights in June 2010 between those 2 cities.
Jim_in_BNA
Explorer C
Bill- Just wanted to say thank you for making us a gateway to Panama City. That is a huge market from here as I hope you'll see and the only other time we've had service was a prop plane several years ago. In particular, I'd like to thank you for giving me an alternative to that AWFUL car ride. My family, this includes relatives and the whole the nine yards, always like to get together and go there and I'm always so miserable during the 9 hour drive. THANK YOU for finally giving me an alternative back! Was really hoping for a direct flight from Chicago to Panama City Beach. Very disappointing! Anonymous — Wed, 12/16/2009 - 13:29 ----------------------------------------- Guess you'll just have to settle for a connection in Nashville 🙂 It's not so bad.
Edie_Fabio
Explorer C
EPC! Great place for wreck diving destination! Close to home and warmer than Atlantic or Great Lakes! All You Divers... fly then rent equip from some of the great dive shops there. Excellent!
cbraden
Explorer C
Bill, many thanks to you and all the schedule planning team for the return of ORF-LAS!!
Anonymous3373
Explorer C
well no non stop from chicago, might as well continue with Delta our of ORD
Casey2
Explorer C
DEN > MSN ... the only direct flight is United and it's always booked. Epic corporation in Madison fills the entire plane! Tickets are never under $500 and united has three daily nonstops! This is price gouging! DEN > MSN please please please!!
MDW-ECP-Yay_
Explorer C
To Bill "Was really hoping for a direct flight from Chicago to Panama City Beach. Very disappointing!" Check the schedule for ECP. There are actually TWO direct flights from MDW to ECP almost every day! Direct means one or more stops and both flights from MDW to ECP make a brief stop in BNA. Direct is different from nonstop, which of course, means no stops.
tusphotog
Explorer A
@ swaluver: I understand that, but slot restrictions and distance limits are irrelevant in this case. There are no "published" connections to LGA from TUS in the new schedule. The only way to get to LGA from TUS is to have a 40 minute connection in MDW, an "illegal" connection in WN's eyes. And, as we all know, not nearly enough time to enjoy the Wreck at Potbelly's.
Scott71
Explorer C
I don't know why Southwest is so intent on loosing money in Denver. Kansas City would make more sense to put the flights in that they are dumping into Denver. I avoid flying Southwest is I will have to fly through Denver.
Lili_Feldman
Explorer C
Is there a flight to Florida from San Diego ? How about non-stop? Asking too much, huh?
Anonymous3870
Explorer C
I agree about the waste of money Southwest is pouring into Denver. Southwest made a mistake in wanting to establish a "hub" at DEN. I don't fly thru Denver on Southwest, and avoid flying thru Denver, I fly Southwest point to point or thru Dallas. Southwest could have bought more planes with the money they loose at Denver.
vanlakecentral
Explorer B
Your posts are always appreciated, particularly since there are no timetables published, for which to learn where Southwest is currently flying. This gives ideas for trips.
Jeff_K_
Explorer C
Hey Bill...I know you've been asked this a million times (a million and one now), what are the chances of a Columbus-Denver trip? We now have service from a multitude of cities to Denver but nothing from the Buckeye State and realizing our competition can fill 2 or 3 A320's or a B757 to Denver, I would think we could do a good job of filling a B73G. What are your feelings about this?
Vikram_Gopal
Explorer C
Dear Southwest Airlines These are 2 markets we would really like to see in the future from southwest out of MILWAUKEE MKE MKE-PHL right now only 2 airlines both with CRJ service (yuck) are flying the route. The prices are significantly higher than say MKE-NYC or MKE-BWI/DCA right now. We'd like to see LUV fly to PHL... MKE-BNA Nashville could be a good stop over and the aircraft could continue onto Florida....people from Milwaukee will go to florida anytime anywhere!!! Thanks for finally coming to MKE!!!
Anonymous246
Explorer C
Better look again! Dahm airport IS underwater because they built it in a swamp! We don't want it, and we don't want YOU! Most will boycott the airport and anyone associated with it. It's a doomed venture. Hope you realize that sooner than later and get the hell out!!!
Anonymous687
Explorer C
Better look again! Dahm airport IS underwater because they built it in a swamp! We don't want it, and we don't want YOU! Most will boycott the airport and anyone associated with it. It's a doomed venture. Hope you realize that sooner than later and get the hell out!!!
Tom22
Explorer C
Bill, Love the increase service at STL. Now the largest metropolitan area where SW is the #1 airline in market share in that market!!! How about STL-IND? - no one flys that route now. Also next city - DSM? I can easily see you take the great state of Iowa with new DSM service. DSM-MSP, DSM-STL, DSM-MDW all have the traffic to make this successful.
Laurie8
Explorer C
When are you coming to MSN or MKE? We'd love to see you here.
Tim_Richards
Explorer C
On behalf of this Nashvillian, thanks for choosing Panama City Beach. The new airport is conveniently located between Panama City Beach and Destin, both of which are visited by thousands of Middle Tennesseans per year. An hour and a half in the air sure beats 7 in the car. My bet is that it won't be long until you are adding more flights. Tim Richards Nashville, TN PS...Condo's rent from Saturday to Saturday so you're going to find that you may have to add more flights on Saturdays.
A_Customer_of_B
Adventurer C
To Bill "Was really hoping for a direct flight from Chicago to Panama City Beach. Very disappointing!" Check the schedule for ECP. There are actually TWO direct flights from MDW to ECP almost every day! Direct means one or more stops and both flights from MDW to ECP make a brief stop in BNA. Direct is different from nonstop, which of course, means no stops. MDW-ECP-Yay! — Wed, 12/16/2009 - 16:15 -------------------------- Have to admit I was worried about this service surviving from Nashville alone even though there is a disproportionate market for it but now that I know we're in it with Chicago I feel much more confident. Together we can support it and because it stops at BNA people between MDW and BNA can have a much straighter flight path with a connection than they would have had it just been MDW nonstop. Smart move Southwest!
alex-trude
Explorer C
Scott--Not sure what proof you have that SWA is actually losing money in Denver. Something is working for us at DEN, and whether it is competition to win Customers away from other airlines (nothing wrong with that), or actually making money, SWA is intent on it and satisfied. PS-If you are avoiding SWA as not to fly through Denver, then please do not fly Frontier or United then since they will probably connect you through Denver also! Happy Flying! 🙂
Anonymous387
Explorer C
A warm Panama City Beach welcome to Southwest Airlines. We are thrilled to have you coming here. It should be amazingly successful.....A great airline bringing thousands of sunworshippers to our great beaches! We have upgraded with much new infastructure, many beautiful new condominiums, Pier Park which is a beautiful new Gulf front outdoor Simon Mall with about 150 shops and restaurants, as well as two new 1500 foot piers on the Gulf. What an opportunity for many who wouldn't make the drive to arrive here in a short flight time and get their feet in the sand of the World's Most Beautiful Beaches. Welcome.
Anonymous1238
Explorer C
How about SDF-BNA? Would provide great connection/thru to Panama City + this is a strong biz commuter market. Would also LUV to see SDF-LGA, PIT, IAD and RDU.
Anonymous2604
Explorer C
I can't wait to head down to New Mexico & Texas!!!! I want to see the old gallys and discusss all the old times with you all!!!!
Howard1
Explorer C
Thanks so much for bringing the early morning BWI-BHM flight back. I take this trip every week and it's nice to see that I can spend Sunday night at home again, beginning in May
A_Customer_of_B
Adventurer C
I second SDF-BNA(a long time city with BNA air service even before its last bout with American as part of their hub-see departedflights.com if you don't believe me) from the Nashville side and BNA-PIT & IND would be nice too. Hopefully someday you'll FINALLY go to Charlotte and Atlanta too which I'd hope you'd serve from Nashville. I submitted another comment which was actually positive last night and you seem to have rejected it. Why is that???
blusk
Aviator C
Anon. Nashville We were a little slow moderating the comments, so I hope your previous comments were in the batch that we just posted. If not, there is a cchance it might have gone to the spam catcher. We haven't deleted any comments on this post. Brian
Anonymous3275
Explorer C
How can I fly from KOA Hawaii
Robert_S
Explorer B
Bill, thanks as always for your posting about new schedules. I luv the frequency change PDFs. Yes, you should brag about your schedule optimizer more often. Do you set it up to ramp up important one stop routings? My recent MSP-DEN-PHX flight had 50+ through passengers on it, and I'm glad to see a boost from the current 1 up to 2 onestops each way PHX-MSP and MSP-PHX with the summer schedule. I think your next new market should be ATL, simply because it's the only US top 20 metro without SWA service.
Mike_Barnbaum
Explorer B
Bill: I appreciate the addition of one additional non-stop between Sacramento (SMF) and Denver (DEN) with the Summer 2010 Schedule Changes. I would like to suggest a late Friday Night and and Early Saturday Morning non-stop between SMF and Spokane (GEG) in developing the next round of schedule opening that you and your staff are now behind the scenes working on for service starting on and after August 14th. With the next schedule likely including the start of the College Football Season, Sacramento State Fans can travel non-stop to see their team play a Big Sky Conference Matchup in Cheney against the Eagles of Eastern Washington. Lately fans flying to this game have to stop in Portland (PDX) or Seattle (SEA) first before landing at GEG. Our fans have expressed no interest in taking the capitol Corridor or Driving into Oakland just to do this. Please look into this as part of research for the next schedule. Also, beyond August 14th, I heard today 17 December 2009 from Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson that the new Central Terminal at SMF might, just might open in Fall of 2011, a mere six months prior to the original date of Spring 2012. I would encourage you and your team to meet soon, and I mean real soon to fly to SMF and meet with G. Hardy Acree and the rest of the Sacramento County Airport System on a flight service expansion master plan for Sacramento, Northern California's Premiere Airport of Choice. Southwest has a majority of the market share in Sacramento, and you should keep it. Meeting with the Sacramento County Airport System prior to the new terminal opening, in my opinion, will allow you to keep the majority of the market share here. Could Newark (EWR) be in the plans too? --Mike Barnbaum, Rapid Rewards Member in Sacramento, California
A_Customer_of_B
Adventurer C
Anon. Nashville We were a little slow moderating the comments, so I hope your previous comments were in the batch that we just posted. If not, there is a cchance it might have gone to the spam catcher. We haven't deleted any comments on this post. Brian Brian Lusk — Thu, 12/17/2009 - 12:57 ----------------------- It was there 🙂 Thanks!
Anonymous1332
Explorer C
It's awesome to see that so many people think that Nashville would make such a good connection point 🙂 We were good at it with American as the "On time hub"(search google news archives)and would love to serve the purpose again..In fact I think we're better suited for it after having renovated the terminal than we were when they'd designed it to be that way. Hopefully folks in SDF, MKE, and elsewhere will get their wish!!
Chris_A
Explorer C
Dear Southwest Airlines These are 2 markets we would really like to see in the future from southwest out of MILWAUKEE MKE MKE-PHL right now only 2 airlines both with CRJ service (yuck) are flying the route. The prices are significantly higher than say MKE-NYC or MKE-BWI/DCA right now. We'd like to see LUV fly to PHL... MKE-BNA Nashville could be a good stop over and the aircraft could continue onto Florida....people from Milwaukee will go to florida anytime anywhere!!! Thanks for finally coming to MKE!!! Vikram Gopal — Wed, 12/16/2009 - 21:35 -------------------------------------------------- Everyone in Nashville knows there's a demand to come to and through our city. But unfortunately you gotta convince Schedule Planning and Kelly before it'll ever actually happen. So if you guys really want it keep being loud and make sure you let SW know it and be consistent. That's the only way its gonna happen.....Right now BWI is the favorite. But if we had the southbound connections from places like MKE, SDF, IND, PIT, etc. then we could fill planes to cities all over Florida(including RSW and PBI) and vice versa. This is something that has been stated to Southwest time and time again but its slow to take. They're afraid they'll end up like AA but AA was more of a cop out on Crandall's part then it was a problem of ours. Had he put forth the effort and been sincere to his commitment then he could have made it work at BNA just like Northwest made it work at MEM at the same time which is still alive and well with the new Delta. It also didn't help that the idiot Crandall sent 727's to Chattanooga and props to Charlotte....talk about bad aircraft allocation!
cubanohank42
Explorer C
Are there any plans on having a flight from BWI to Cedar Rapids, Iowa? I fly out of BWI all the time, but whenever I have to go to Iowa (which is often) I can't get there with Southwest. I normally fly on United through Chicago or Northwest through Detroit. These flights are always packed and many of the same people flying on both flights. There are no direct flights from BWI to Cedar Rapids. Southwest please help me out here! I was hoping with the additional flights coming out of BWI in 2010 that Cedar Rapids would be added, but after asking around it looks like this is not the case. Thanks!
Julie14
Explorer C
Is the next schedule release date public? Once again, we're planning our summer vacation at the beach around the southwest schedule and I gave my sister the week of August 7 - 14 simply because I couldn't book a return trip yet (and all the good flights on the 7th will be gone by the time I can). So I'm hoping to hit the Aug 14th schedule as soon as it come out! Many thanks. Julie
blusk
Aviator C
Julie, we post the next opening date on the "Travel Tools" page of southwest.com. Right now the next schedule is set to open on March 23. However, that date isn't set in stone, and sometimes things can change. Keep an eye on the Travel Tools page just to be sure. Brian
Anonymous11311
Explorer C
Hey. When will code-shares with WestJet and Volaris finally start and are you guys still working on Europe and Asia and what is the status on that?? I know that this can't get posted without someone reading it first so if you would be so kind as to write back I'd really appreciate it. I tried to pick a relevant post to put this comment on and scheduling seemed the most appropriate. Thanks!
Mr__Canada
Explorer C
Hey...what about beyond August 13/2010? I am Canadian and you cannot forget about all the Canadians coming down to Florida in the summer. Although in Florida and in the South the kids go back to school in August we Canadians have off until Sept. Southwest is missing the boat by not posting late August flights also. This is especially true when the other airlines already do! So although I like Southwest, they will be losing business if they do not post flights to Florida for late August. Don't forgot about the CANADIANS!! We spend lots of money in Florida each year and recently have bought up tons of property and taken advantage of the bad (that's good for us) housing market. The same thing did not happen here in Canada thanks to our strong banking system and our housing costs have not been affected, in fact, our housing values have only gone up through the recession. BE SMART SOUTHWEST AND CATER TO CANADIANS!