Southwest adds 23 summer 2027 routes as it bulks up Austin and Nashville
The schedule extension runs to 2 August and covers 15 cities, led by new weekend links from the Texas capital.
Southwest Airlines has opened another tranche of its 2027 schedule, extending bookings through August 2 and adding 23 new or returning routes alongside a series of frequency increases. The carrier announced the changes across 15 cities, with service running for the peak summer window between June 3 and August 2.
Three airports explain where the airline is putting its aircraft. Austin, Nashville and San Diego have all gained repeatedly from recent expansion, though the carrier says each plays a different role in the strategy. The newest schedule reinforces all three stations while adding fresh nonstop links.
Austin is the biggest winner in the latest drop, with seven new or returning routes starting in June. Three of them reach the tropics, including new nonstop service to Liberia's Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Costa Rica. That Austin to Liberia flight will operate on Saturdays and Sundays between June 5 and August 1.
The Costa Rica link adds to a previously announced Austin service to San José's Juan Santamaría International Airport. Southwest also adds weekend Austin to Nassau and Punta Cana flights and a new weekend route to Savannah, plus daily service to Portland that it last operated in 2018.
Saturdays bring new seasonal Austin to Bozeman service, and a returning Austin to Sarasota route last flown in 2023 also reappears. The expansion follows a record 141 peak day departures already scheduled from the Texas capital for spring break 2027, with around 143 expected on peak days next summer.
The urgency comes from Delta Air Lines. Southwest remains Austin's largest carrier at 42% market share, but Delta has become the airport's number two at 19% and is targeting more than 70 peak day departures to about 30 destinations by summer 2027, including a new Austin to Paris service from March 27.
Daniel Jones, Southwest's vice president of network planning, framed the new flying as a defence of the airline's standing. He said the carrier has been the hometown airline in the Texas capital for nearly 50 years, and that connecting Austin with Costa Rica gives loyal customers another reason to choose Southwest.
The competition now reaches beyond schedules. Southwest set up a crew base in Austin this year and picked the airport for one of its first proprietary lounges, due in late 2027. Construction is already underway on lounges at Austin and Nashville.
What Nashville and San Diego gain
Nashville's growth tells a different story. Southwest had earlier lined up daily Nashville to Des Moines and Wichita flights from March 2027, plus Saturday service to Aruba, Montego Bay, St. Thomas and Liberia. The new schedule extends portions of those routes into summer and adds more leisure links.
Boise and Bozeman extend Nashville's reach into the Mountain West, while Nassau and Providenciales contribute two more Caribbean markets. All four are summer seasonal, with Boise, Nassau and Providenciales entirely new and Bozeman returning after its 2026 seasonal run.
The airline plans up to 220 daily departures at Nashville in peak summer 2027, up 16% from this year. That breadth increasingly lets Southwest use the airport for connections rather than relying only on passengers beginning or ending their journeys in Middle Tennessee.
Nashville is also receiving investment on the ground. It is one of the first four airports chosen for the carrier's new lounge concept, with the planned facility spanning roughly 30,200 square feet, or 2,806 square metres. Combined with the schedule growth, that makes the airport resemble a conventional connecting hub.
Shorter domestic spokes such as Knoxville and Little Rock already feed Nashville, and the airport is an additional gateway for Southwest's Icelandair partnership. Southwest still avoids describing its network in traditional hub and spoke terms.
San Diego rounds out the strategy on the West Coast. Southwest had already pushed the airport to a record 140 peak day departures in 2026, adding frequency to Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle. By March 2027 its San Diego map should encompass about 50 destinations including new weekend Hawaii links to Kona and Lihue.
The summer additions include returning San Diego to Bozeman service on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Summer seasonal returns to Columbus and Pittsburgh also come back, alongside new or returning Sunday service to Oklahoma City. The Deep South also gains new service from the airport.
San Diego's value lies in combining a large local leisure market with Hawaii routes and longer domestic demand. Southwest handled more than nine million passengers there in 2025 and remained the airport's largest airline at 37% share, even as Alaska Airlines has expanded aggressively at the same facility.
Taken together, the 23 routes show an airline concentrating resources where it already has substantial scale. Southwest is defending Austin as Delta grows, turning Nashville into a stronger connecting complex, and deepening its West Coast position. The frequency increases around established strongholds matter as much as the new routes.
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