Southwest Airways cuts 15 locations from Atlanta, provides 6 new Nashville routes

Southwest Airways is making main modifications to its community.

The Dallas-based service introduced Wednesday that it’s extending its schedule via June 4, 2025. As a part of the extension, the service is slicing a slew of routes from certainly one of its working bases. It is also including six new flights from Nashville Worldwide Airport (BNA).

Southwest cuts 15 Atlanta markets

Beginning with the cuts, Southwest will exit a whopping 15 markets from its base at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport (ATL). A service spokesperson confirmed that the airline will completely exit the next markets efficient April 2025:

• Cleveland
• Fort Lauderdale
• Fort Myers, Florida
• Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina
• Jackson, Mississippi
• Jacksonville, Florida
• Louisville, Kentucky
• Memphis
• Miami
• Milwaukee
• Oklahoma Metropolis
• Omaha
• Philadelphia
• Richmond, Virginia
• Sarasota, Florida

The airline additionally filed plans to quickly droop Atlanta-to-Cancun, Mexico, service, however that route will return within the close to future, Southwest informed TPG.

Southwest says that these routes are being minimize on account of diminished reserving patterns on many of those routes.

“We proceed to optimize our community to fulfill Buyer demand, greatest make the most of our fleet, and maximize income alternatives. Selections like these are tough for our Firm due to the results on our Individuals, however we’ve a historical past of greater than 53 years of guaranteeing they’re taken care of,” the airline mentioned in a press release.

In tandem with the cuts, the airline will scale back its presence at ATL from 18 to 11 gates subsequent yr. As such, the airline will not want as many staff at its Atlanta station, however all staff shall be supplied to switch stations, the service confirmed to TPG.

Going ahead, Southwest shall be targeted on capturing origin and vacation spot demand from Atlanta to different well-liked Southwest airports, corresponding to ones in Baltimore, Dallas, Denver and Houston.

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All these modifications come because the airline struggles to return to profitability amid repeated strain from activist investor Elliott Funding Administration.

Southwest is anticipated to announce an in depth plan to chop prices throughout its investor day on Thursday.

Southwest provides 6 new Nashville routes

It isn’t all cuts for Southwest, although. The airline is boosting its presence in Nashville with the addition of six new routes.

Starting April 8, 2025, Southwest will begin flying from BNA to:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Albany, New York
• Jackson, Mississippi
• Memphis
• Windfall, Rhode Island
• Tulsa, Oklahoma

Curiously, this enlargement marks the primary time that Southwest will fly intra-Tennessee service. It is also the primary time that Memphis has been served from Nashville on a significant service since Delta Air Traces pulled out of the market in 2014, in response to Cirium information. (That minimize occurred in tandem with Delta dehubbing Memphis, a base that was initially inherited as a part of the Northwest Airways merger in 2008.)

It’s going to be attention-grabbing to see how this 200-mile service works out for Southwest. In spite of everything, it is only a 3 1/2-hour drive between the 2 cities.

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4 of the six new routes are completely new for Southwest. The airline used to fly between Nashville and Albuquerque in 1988 and from Nashville to Windfall in 2011.

The announcement comes on the heels of the service opening its latest flight crew base in Nashville on Might 1. In whole, Southwest plans an all-time-high variety of Sunday departures subsequent April and Might.

Extra red-eye flights

Along with the brand new routes, Southwest introduced that it will debut red-eye flights on 5 Hawaii routes starting in April. Including red-eye service from Hawaii has been a very long time coming for Southwest.

Earlier this yr, the service introduced its first red-eye routes within the continental U.S. It then expanded its portfolio of in a single day flights to incorporate 10 markets.

Starting April 8, 2025, Southwest will add every day red-eye service within the following markets:

• Honolulu to Las Vegas
• Honolulu to Phoenix
• Kona, Hawaii, to Las Vegas
• Kahului/Maui, Hawaii, to Las Vegas
• Kahului/Maui to Phoenix

Including in a single day flights from Hawaii will enable the airline to supply extra connecting itineraries for flyers heading to factors east of the West Coast.

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