Southwest Airlines is adding 2 new cities to its route network in 2021 as it tries to dominate on the West Coast

Advertisement
Southwest Airlines is adding 2 new cities to its route network in 2021 as it tries to dominate on the West Coast
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 aircraft.Chris Parypa Photography/shutterstock
  • Southwest Airlines is adding the Californian cities of Fresno and Santa Barbara to its route network in the new year.
  • No routes or start dates have been announced but service will begin in the second quarter of 2021.
  • The expansion strengthens Southwest's West Coast rivalry with Alaska Airlines as the two fight for dominance in the region.
Advertisement

Southwest Airlines last week informed federal regulators of plans to add two Californian cities to its route network in 2021 in a bid to grow its presence in the Golden State.

Santa Barbara and Fresno will receive their first Southwest flights in the second quarter of 2021 as the 12th and 13th cities in California served by the Dallas-based airline. Both are in line with Southwest's recent leisure route expansions as Santa Barbara is a popular coastal town while Fresno sits just south of Yosemite National Park.

Firm start dates and the first routes from the two cities remain unknown but, as previous route expansions have shown, Southwest's bases toward the center of the country usually get first dibs with Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, and Chicago likely first recipients.

The move will grow Southwest's presence in the state, with direct service to the top eight largest cities in the state once Fresno service begins, while also strengthening a West Coast rivalry. Alaska Airlines has been similarly building its West Coast network over the years but kicked efforts into overdrive with the 2016 acquisition of Virgin America, putting the two airlines at direct odds.

Along with more planes and a larger market share in the region, the acquisition gave Alaska a new San Francisco hub, growth in Los Angeles, and new transcontinental routes to the East Coast. When the acquisition was announced in April of 2016, Alaska only served 21 cities from Los Angeles and San Francisco, but that number has since grown to 43, Cirium data shows.

Advertisement

Southwest and Alaska also began competing on routes to Hawaii from smaller cities in California - routes for which Alaska was known - when Southwest entered the market in March 2019.

Alaska currently serves both Santa Barbara and Fresno, along with 14 other cities in California, with service from West Coast cities like Los Angeles; San Diego; Seattle; and Portland, Oregon.

But Southwest has a sprawling nationwide network while Alaska mostly has the West Coast and a handful of routes to the East Coast that don't require a connection in Seattle or transfer to another airline as Alaska is joining the Oneworld airline alliance in March 2021. Southwest will also have the size advantage by using mainline Boeing 737 jets instead of the smaller regional jets Alaska uses to serve those cities.

The expansion is part of an aggressive recovery plan for 2021 that's seeing Southwest focus more on leisure travelers than business flyers as it becomes clear the former is flying more than the latter. Over 40 new routes were announced in the fall alone combined with new service to major airports in Miami, Houston, and Chicago in a massive but necessary departure from Southwest's traditional route network in order to attract more customers.

Read more: 5 charts reveal how badly the loss of business travel is hurting America's biggest airlines - and why a COVID-19 vaccine won't ease the pain

Advertisement

More Boeing 737 Max jets are also slated to arrive at the airline in 2021 to help power the growing route network while saving on fuel costs, though it's unclear as of now whether the newly-ungrounded aircraft will serve either Fresno or Santa Barbara.

{{}}