Southwest Airlines, Boeing 737-800
Southwest Airlines, the largest in Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airline, said Monday it would add extra flights during the summer to eight cities around the country - and plans to add more flights in the future.The Dallas-based airline is adding an additional flight every day to Hartford, Conn., And Orlando and Tampa, Florida. Southwest also will add an additional daily flight to Denver, Manchester, NH, and Oakland, Calif., From Sunday to Sunday. And Nashville, Tenn., And Seattle will get an additional daily flight on Saturdays from ICM.
Flights from June 5 to August 6; Tickets went on sale Monday. "It's about improving our range of service and added convenience for our customers in the area of Baltimore-Washington, as we seek to grow throughout the region," said Andrew Watterson, vice president of the Southwest for network and revenue in a release. "Overall, Southwest offers a more BWI, Reagan National, and Dulles airports than any other airline. Watterson said the airline is "just the beginning."
Ricky Smith, the CEO of ICM, said in a statement that the new flights would expand consumer choices. "Southwest continues providing customer service and low prices for our customers service," he said.
The announcement is likely to sustain the recent growth in BWI. Airport set a record for traffic with 23.8 million passengers in 2015, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2014.
That blow was driven largely by an increase in international passenger traffic, which grew by 31.9 percent in 2015. The total international passengers in 2015 rose to 1.14 million, the first time the figure was higher than 1 million passengers.
Southwest launched the international service of the ICM in July 2014, starting with flights to Aruba; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, Bahamas; Cancun, Mexico; and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. In 2015, Southwest began service from BWI to San Jose and Liberia in Costa Rica and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said last year that the ICM would be a center for international expansion of the airline. The airline also continued to expand its domestic service. Last month, Southwest announced it would add daily service between BWI and Sacramento, Calif., From August. Two new daily flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., Will begin April 12.
Southwest is the largest airline at BWI, with 16.8 million passengers in 2015 - more than 70 percent of all flights at the airport. Southwest had 14.9 million passengers at BWI during 2014, and the airport is the third center company in the country after Chicago Midway International Airport and Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.