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Bring Southwest to Knoxville

calichick925
Explorer C

With Knoxville, TN having an influx of people moving in (hello CA residents) and the opening of the new longer runway in December of last year it is time to bring Southwest to Knoxville! The closest airports currently are 3 hours (Nashville) and 4 hours (Atlanta) drive. With UT and the major growth happening there is a need for a Southwest route. Many (like myself) have moved from California (and other Western states) and frequently return to visit or have travelers visiting in TN.

 

Knoxville is also centrally located for Southwest to continue flights along to other Eastern destinations.

 

Projections show that population will continue to grow 

  • The current metro area population of Knoxville in 2022 is 771,000, a 1.98% increase from 2021.
  • The metro area population of Knoxville in 2021 was 756,000, a 2.02% increase from 2020.
  • The metro area population of Knoxville in 2020 was 741,000, a 2.35% increase from 2019.
  • The metro area population of Knoxville in 2019 was 724,000, a 2.4% increase from 2018.
19 REPLIES 19

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm curious, what airlines serve Knoxville now?

 

Since Southwest does not monitor the Community for ideas/suggestions your best best is to contact them directly.  Use the contact us link at the bottom of this page and send a message.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

bec102896
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

I'm curious, what airlines serve Knoxville now?

 

Since Southwest does not monitor the Community for ideas/suggestions your best best is to contact them directly.  Use the contact us link at the bottom of this page and send a message.

 

--TheMiddleSeat


I know allegiant serves Knoxville 

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

dfwskier
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

I'm curious, what airlines serve Knoxville now?

 

 The three legacies plus Frontier and Allegiant

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

yugi
Explorer C

Knoxville is served mainly by Allegiant and AA, then Delta, United and Frontier.

I also moved to here from CA in 2019, and I'm disappointed than WN doesn't fly here.

I was (and still) a big fan of WN, but I don't fly it anymore, since it's not serving Knoxville. I was initially flying mostly UA out of TYS, but then UA cut a few routes out for TYS (namely to EWR), and I switched to AA, which serves most destinations out of TYS behind Allegiant. AA is my second favorite US airline after WN. It's a pity that WN doesn't fly to TYS. I'd like to continue flying WN. Hope they will come here at some point. I'll use AA until then.

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

floridaguy
Aviator C

There is likely too few people for Southwest to justify setting up shop there.  Southwest serves a lot of routes in the south and west, also in larger northern cities.

 

Back in 2017 Southwest pulled out of Akron-Canton, a regional airport about 1/2 hour south of Akron Ohio and that there just wasn't enough volume.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/travel/2017/01/southwest_airlines_to_leave_ak.html

 

I've been to Knoxville before via Interstate 75 and 81.  Not much there other than the large golden ball, a remnant of the 1982 Worlds Fair.  

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

yugi
Explorer C

Knoxville is growing dramatically in the last 3 years.

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@yugi wrote:

Knoxville is growing dramatically in the last 3 years.


Very popular request on the board - use the Contact Southwest Customer Service to let the airline know directly.

 

I think it's a long shot, the traffic is about 2.5M pax per year which is similar to Pensacola which seems to be a little on the smaller side but viable.

 

I'd also be worried with the university traffic going every which direction that there won't be a logical connection. Right now the largest destinations are the Delta and American hubs so we don't know where the passengers are actually going in the end.

 

Would it work for Southwest to connect to BWI?

 

Nashville is already fairly close and is a larger focus city for Southwest so that wouldn't make sense since anyone going there would consider driving.

 

ATL also already close enough that some people would drive there instead.

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

floridaguy
Aviator C

I would have to doubt that anyone in Knoxville would drive to Atlanta's Hartsville Jackson airport just to use Southwest.  Airport to airport that's 226 miles of driving and over 3 hours in the car.

 

Driving to the Nashville airport would be 175 miles or about 2 1/2 hours.

 

Driving to the Chattanooga airport would be 106 miles or about 1 1/2 hours.

Re: Bring Southwest to Knoxville

yugi
Explorer C

I would never drive to BNA or especially to ATL for WN, I'd rather use AA or UA instead. 

As for tourism destinations there are plenty: Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, TGSM NP, Tail of the Dragon, etc.

AA wins, WN loses!