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- Southwest Airlines is adding three new destinations to its 2021 route map.
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Bellingham, Washington; and Eugene, Oregon are expected to see new flights.
- The routes of each airport are still unknown but the first flights are expected to be launched by the summer.
- Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.
Southwest Airlines on Monday announced plans to serve three new destinations across the United States later this year.
The low-cost carrier will soon serve Myrtle Beach, SC; Bellingham, Washington; and Eugene, Oregon, in another pandemic-era expansion that follows the addition of Bozeman, Montana and Destin, Florida, announced last month.
Myrtle Beach will be the first city to see new flights, with CEO Gary Kelly saying in a statement that the destination aims to serve summer travelers and golfers, in particular. Golf bags count as one of two free bags that travelers to the southwest can check out, the airline coining “golf bags fly for free” as a play on one of its classic slogans, “the bags. fly freely ”.
The Carolinian coastal town adds to the existing chain of southwestern destinations on the southeast Atlantic coast. Savannah, Georgia and Miami were added to the Southwest network in 2020, and the addition of Myrtle Beach gives the carrier coverage at nearly every major airport on the Atlantic coast, from South Carolina to South Florida. .
Bellingham, closer to Vancouver, Canada than Seattle, will then experience a flight in the second half of 2021 as it serves a cross-border market. Canadians frequently cross the US border to take flights to save on taxes levied on international flights by the US and Canadian governments.
“Following the reopening of the Canadian border, we expect value-conscious travelers already to this alternative airport to escape the high tariffs and taxes – and this is very, very typical for destinations southwest, ”Kelly said.
The Canada-U.S. Border is currently closed for non-essential travel, a pandemic-era policy approaching its first anniversary, but it could be reopened when Southwest begins service. US and Canadian officials are renewing the policy every month, and the accelerated deployment of the vaccine in the United States could encourage the reopening of talks.
Southwest is joining forces with Washington state-owned Alaska Airlines and low-cost airline Allegiant Air to serve Bellingham.
Eugene will only be the second southwest destination in Beaver State behind Portland, surrounded by national forests and within driving distance of Oregon’s Pacific Coast and Crater Lake National Park. Southwest will not be alone in the city as American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska and Allegiant serve Eugene from cities in the United States.
Flights to Eugene are also scheduled for the second half of 2021.
Routes have yet to be announced for any of the new towns, but Southwest will likely offer service to nearby bases that provide connections across the country. For Bellingham and Eugene, that likely means flights to Denver, Dallas, Las Vegas or Phoenix, while Myrtle Beach could serve Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore or Nashville, Tennessee.
All routes will be used by the airline’s Boeing 737 aircraft and will likely see the Boeing 737 Max. Southwest plans to resume flying the Max on March 11, the last airline in the United States to do so behind American Airlines, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Two existing destinations – Steamboat Springs and Telluride in Colorado – will also see their seasonal flights extended throughout the summer.
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