We desperately need Southwest in Rapid City, South Dakota...

[ppeerboom]

Please add Rapid City, South Dakota to your route map as soon as possible... This would be a great market for you... 145,000 population in the immediate area... Growing... Mount Rushmore and other great tourist destinations in the Black Hills... Sturgis Rally... Thanks for considering... 

[TheMiddleSeat]

Since this is a customer to customer forum you are welcome to submit your suggestions directly to Southwest by using the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page.  Choose the send a message option.

--TheMiddleSeat

[5280Av8r]

There are plenty of airports that Southwest doesn't serve that are larger than Rapid City. Even with the tourism, I'd say most of the people going to those things are doing a road trip, especially Sturgis. Southwest is currently focused on rebuilding the network they had before the pandemic, so they won't be adding new destinations for awhile. Either comment on any of Southwest's social media posts or send them a message by using the contact us button below. Hopefully they'll put your request on their potentially long wishlist of their own.

Andrew E

DEN Based | Aviation Enthusiast

[ppeerboom]

Southwest serves smaller markets than Rapid City, Bozeman being a prime example. Business activity is booming in RC, as is in-migration from other states, leading to increased air travel. Tourism, including the Sturgis rally, has lots of flyers (Delta adds a direct flight to RC from Atlanta for most of the summer). There are 4 daily United flights between RC and Denver each day. 3 daily Delta  flights between RC and Minneapolis. Those flights are always full and expensive. Southwest could come in and take the bulk of that business immediately. Just get us from RC to Denver, Minneapolis, and Las Vegas and we'll do the rest 🙂 Otherwise, I guess we'll just have to live with mediocre service and expensive airfare from United and Delta for now 🙂

[dfwskier]

There are lots of flyers that put up with mediocre service and expensive airfares from United and Delta (American too),

why. ? Because Southwest can’t be everywhere all the time

[5280Av8r]

Yes, the city of Rapid City is bigger than Bozeman, but if you look at passenger traffic which is what really matters for airlines, Bozeman is bigger. Pre-pandemic, Rapid City had 705,429 passengers while Bozeman had 1,573,860 passengers. In terms of the airport, Bozeman is twice as busy. So while there are many unserved cities by Southwest, I don't believe Rapid City is super high on the list.