Southwest Airlines adds 5 non-stops flights, 3 destinations from Denver

Southwest Airlines, the low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, is expanding yet again in Denver in a big way by adding 5 non-stop departures and three new cities.
Southwest Airlines has earlier described Denver as one of its fastest-growing airports.

From August 4, 2008, Southwest Airlines will start flying between Denver, Colorado; and Sacramento, California.

In addition to the Sacramento-Denver route, Southwest Airlines is adding flights on the following routes:

* One daily non-stop round-trip between Denver and Phoenix.
* One daily non-stop round-trip between Denver and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Florida.
* One daily non-stop round-trip between Denver and New Orleans.

Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier at Sacramento International Airport, Sacramento, California.

Southwest Airlines has the McCarran International Airport at Las Vegas, Nevada, as its largest focus city. It is the largest airline in the United States by number of passengers carried domestically per year and (as of December 31, 2007) also the largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried.

Southwest is also the 6th largest airline in the United States by revenue and maintains the fourth-largest fleet of aircraft among all of the world’s commercial airlines.

Southwest Airlines’ plans of expansion come a few weeks after Frontier Airlines, based in Denver, filed for bankruptcy protection and also follows an announcement by Southwest itself in April 2008 to add new flights to Portland, Oregon; and Indianapolis.

The website usatoday.com quoted a spokesman of Southwest Airlines as saying: “The situation at Frontier Airlines has played a role in Southwest’s expansion plans, but it was just one of several factors in the decision. A part of this is to respond to what is going on in that particular market, but we have been growing there since starting service in Denver more than two years ago. We are also slowing the retirement of our aircraft, which gives us opportunities to grow system-wide without taking on new plane deliveries.”

After the most recent expansion, Southwest Airlines will have 89 daily departures from Denver to 28 cities.

Southwest is offering one-way introductory fares, not including some taxes and fees, to Sacramento for $69, to New Orleans for $89, and to Fort Lauderdale for $99.