Southwest Airways is increasing within the Caribbean, with plans to serve its first new vacation spot in almost half a decade.
The Dallas-based service on Monday introduced it should launch nonstop service to St. Thomas within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The brand new flights will start in early 2026.
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For Southwest, having access to the U.S. Virgin Islands is an particularly noteworthy vacation spot. Past a brand new island and territory, it is the airline’s first new vacation spot in a number of years.
The final new pin on the service’s proverbial map got here in late 2021, when it added Syracuse Hancock Worldwide Airport (SYR) in upstate New York throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when home journey led the way in which.
Latest years have seen Southwest make cutbacks to its route map, together with exiting Syracuse itself.
That is set to alter.
3 new Southwest cities coming quickly
Southwest stated Monday that it plans to announce a complete of three all-new cities — St. Thomas, plus two extra that the service has not but revealed.
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Whereas the remaining two will little question be the supply of a lot hypothesis, Southwest additionally didn’t reveal which cities it intends to make use of to serve St. Thomas’ Cyrus E. King Worldwide Airport (STT).
The service informed TPG it would not wish to tip its hand to rivals earlier than the route goes on sale — which is predicted quickly.
For what it is value, Southwest’s most important East Coast development over the previous two years has centered on Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Nashville Worldwide Airport (BNA). We’ll know quickly sufficient whether or not it is a type of airports, or a special Southwest base, that will get this new STT nonstop flight.
Southwest’s new St. Thomas flights
Positioned within the Caribbean, St. Thomas (and the united statesVirgin Islands as an entire) makes for a well-liked journey vacation spot: all the heat climate and seashores you’d count on in a tropical vacation spot, however with out the necessity to even deliver a passport — that’s, except you intend to take a ship journey to the close by British Virgin Islands, as I did on a 2017 journey.
A number of new, overhauled and rebranded factors properties have opened in recent times, together with a marquee Marriott Bonvoy property within the Westin Seaside Resort and Spa at Frenchman’s Reef.
“We wish to make Southwest Airways the simple and apparent selection each time, and that is one other significant step in our ongoing transformation,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan stated in a assertion Monday.
A number of main U.S. airways at present fly to and from St. Thomas. American Airways has by far the most important presence, based on information from aviation analytics agency Cirium — adopted by Delta Air Strains, Spirit Airways and United Airways.
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