Southwest Airlines goes south: New daily routes to Mexico, Bahamas
Southwest Airlines, the nation’s biggest domestic carrier, continued its expansion into international destinations by announcing new daily routes to Mexico and the Bahamas.
The new routes represent only the second batch of international destinations that the Dallas-based carrier will begin to serve starting this summer.
In January, Southwest announced that its first venture into international destinations will be to three beach cities in the Bahamas starting in July.
Southwest said Monday that it is adding daily nonstop service to Cancun and Los Cabos in Mexico and to Nassau in the Bahamas starting in August. The new routes will begin from Santa Ana/Orange County, Atlanta, Baltimore and Milwaukee. In October, Southwest is to begin nonstop flights from Denver to Mexico.
More details are available at the airline’s website.
The move was expected since Southwest acquired AirTran Airways in 2011. AirTran already serves destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Southwest officials said that by the end of the year, the airline plans to serve 96 destinations in six countries, including all the international stops now served by AirTran.
In a blog post, Southwest said it is moving cautiously in taking over AirTran’s routes to reduce the risk of overwelming the training and support staff.
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