Southwest to start 10 routes from O’Hare and Colorado Springs
Southwest’s 10 routes from Chicago O’Hare and Colorado Springs will have 231 weekly departures. It’ll now even have more weekly flights from O’Hare to Nashville than long-standing Midway.
Southwest has revealed 10 new routes: five from Chicago O’Hare – its second airport in Chicagoland – and five from Colorado Springs.
Only three of these routes are unserved: O’Hare and Colorado Springs to Dallas Love, and Colorado Springs to Chicago Midway.
Nashville will have more weekly departures from O’Hare (28) than from Midway (24), the airline’s website shows.
Southwest has also announced its return to Washington Dulles from Chicago Midway, with a 21-weekly service from 11 March. This route was last served in 2016.
With all of these routes, Chicago is getting serious LUV.
He said Southwest has lots of passengers from locations closer to those major airports, and they now have aircraft available to do it.
Southwest’s new routes from O’Hare and Colorado Springs will collectively have 231 weekly departures: 140 from O’Hare and 91 from the Colorado airport.
Route summary
| Routing | Start date | Weekly frequency | Direct competition (WF)* | Indirect competition (WF)* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago O’Hare – Baltimore | 14 February | 28 | American (34), United (26), Spirit (7) | United: Dulles (42); United: National (96); American: National (63); Southwest: Midway (31); Southwest: National (18) |
| Chicago O’Hare – Dallas Love | 14 February | 28 | None | American: Dallas Fort Worth (98), United: DFW (51), Spirit: DFW (7) Southwest: Midway (42) |
| Chicago O’Hare – Denver | 14 February | 42 | United (70), American (27), Frontier (7), Spirit (7) | Southwest: Midway (42) |
| Chicago O’Hare – Nashville | 14 February | 28 | United (53), American (52), | Southwest: Midway (24) |
| Chicago O’Hare – Phoenix | 14 February | 14 | American (63), United (35), Frontier (7), Spirit (7) | Southwest: Midway (45) |
| Colorado Springs – Dallas Love | 11 March | 21 | None | American: DFW (42) |
| Colorado Springs – Denver | 11 March | 28 | United (70) | None |
| Colorado Springs – Chicago Midway | 11 March | 14 | None | United: Chicago O’Hare (20); American: Chicago O’Hare (7) |
| Colorado Springs – Las Vegas | 11 March | 14 | Frontier (9) | None |
| Colorado Springs – Phoenix | 11 March | 14 | Frontier (5) | None |
| Source: airline websites. *In the week that Southwest begins. | ||||
Southwest will serve 105 airports in March; new shortest route coming
Most routes will start with high frequencies, most notably Denver – Colorado Springs at 28-weekly.
This will be Southwest’s third within Colorado, after Steamboat Springs (starting 19 December) and Montrose (19 December).
Read more: Denver is now Southwest’s number-one airport.
At just 117 kilometres, Denver – Colorado Springs will also be its shortest route network-wide, beating Kahului – Kona (135 kilometres), Honolulu – Kahului (162), and Chicago Midway – Grand Rapids (220). It will have a block time of typically 40 minutes.
With United’s 70 weekly between Colorado Springs and Denver, the airport-pair will have 98 weekly. United alone will have five daily departures to the state capital between 0600 and 0933 alone.
Southwest will serve 105 airports in mid-March 2021 – up from 103 YOY. This includes O’Hare and Colorado Springs, Miami, Palm Springs, and the two in Colorado launching this winter, together with incoming Houston Intercontinental, Jackson (MS), and Savannah (GA).
The carrier’s 11 routes mentioned in this article supplement a further eight that have so far been announced for 2021:
- Atlanta – Panama City (FL)
- Hartford – Nashville: a major unserved route with 72,000 passengers in 2019
- Houston Hobby – Minneapolis
- Nashville – San Juan
- Norfolk – San Diego
- Orange County – Salt Lake City
- Orlando – Salt Lake City
- Washington National – West Palm Beach
Read more: Southwest to start six-weekly Norfolk – San Diego, one of the nation’s top-five unserved routes.
With Chicago O’Hare and Colorado Springs joining Southwest’s network, together with a range of others, the airline will serve 105 airports in mid-March 2021.
With thanks to Sean Moulton.
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