Southwest Just Added 24 New Routes—Including New Caribbean, Mexico, and Costa Rica Service

31.10.2023 - 02:25 / afar.com

Die-hard fans of Southwest Airlines (you know who you are) recently got a welcome boost in service. The low-cost airline last week unveiled an expanded flight schedule that includes two dozen entirely new routes—six of them to international destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America—and six pre-existing routes that the airline is bringing back next year.

With the additions, Southwest’s published schedule will balloon to 4,526 departures in 2024, the most in the low-cost carrier’s history, across its network of 121 airports in 11 countries.

Some of the biggest boosts on the newly released schedule includes several new flights out of Burbank airport in Southern California (Southwest is the larger carrier serving Burbank, which is rapidly becoming a favorite hub among Eastside Angelenos who don’t want to make the trek out to LAX) and service to popular outdoor destinations such as Bozeman, Montana, a gateway to Yellowstone National Park, and Fresno, California, one of the hubs travelers use to access Yosemite National Park.

The new international service is all out of Orlando International Airport in Florida, where Southwest is adding one new flight to Mexico (Cancun), one to Costa Rica, and four to the Caribbean (specifically to the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, and Turks and Caicos). The international flights are subject to government approvals.

Bookings are now open for all of the flights listed below. And while it doesn’t apply to the new routes, Southwest is also currently having a holiday fare sale for flights booked by November 2. The airline is running a promotion on travel that takes place between November 23, 2023, and May 22, 2024 (unfortunately ending before the new routes take off)—that includes a fair amount of holiday travel dates (say what?). Flights within the continental United States are only blacked out on December 26 and 27, 2023, and on January 2, 2024, for this sale—the only exception being John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, for which flights are blacked out November 23, 2023, through January 2, 2024 (hey, you can’t win ‘em all). There are also some restrictions on flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Hawai‘i.

Here’s what to know about Southwest’s expanded flight schedule for 2024.

Starting in June 2024, Southwest will begin flying these new daily nonstop flights:

In June 2024, Southwest will also begin offering weekend service on these new routes:

And Southwest will be bringing back daily service on these six routes in June 2024:

The expansion comes as Southwest is working to lure in more loyal customers in other ways, too. Earlier this month, the airline unveiled changes to its Rapid Rewards loyalty program that make it easier to