Monday, December 5, 2011

DOT approves Southwest / AirTran Mexico Service


Southwest Airlines 737-7H4 (33856/1485) N457WN departs from Portland International Airport (PDX/KPDX).
(Photo by Michael Carter)

Olé, y’all!! We’ve received U.S. DOT approval for our new service to Mexico! Starting May 24, 2012, our subsidiary AirTran Airways will start daily, nonstop service between Orange County, Calif., and both Cabo San Lucas/San Jose del Cabo and Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. In addition, to enable us to keep the AirTran 737-700’s used on the international service “route-able” through the AirTran network, on the same day AirTran will add one daily roundtrip between Orange County and both San Francisco and Las Vegas. At the John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, AirTran and Southwest Airlines flights will operate from beautiful new Terminal 3! And in Mexico City, all of our new AirTran service will operate out of Terminal 1.

Shortly after that, beginning on June 3, AirTran will start daily nonstops between San Antonio and Mexico City as well as four weekly roundtrips between San Antonio and Cancun. This new service “south of the border” is in addition to our existing four daily AirTran flights between Atlanta and San Antonio, all of which operate from Southwest’s gates in Terminal B. And in beautiful Cancun, the new San Antonio service is in addition to our existing AirTran service between the “Mayan Rivera” and Atlanta, Baltimore, and Milwaukee.

To celebrate the new international service, AirTran launched a fare sale today with fares as low as $109 one-way between the new destinations. Customers must book by Dec. 19, 2011, in order to take advantage of these low fares (see Fare Rules below). Currently, all reservations for AirTran flights—including international destinations—must be booked on www.airtran.com, by calling AirTran reservations at (800) 247-8726, or through a travel agent. Southwest Customers can now see AirTran’s nonstop international routes on southwest.com through its new web referral tool which links Customers directly to www.airtran.com. All flights booked on www.airtran.com will be subject to AirTran’s policies and procedures.

We are all SO excited to offer all of this new international service to Mexico—and is a perfect example of how the integration of Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways is going to let us take our Customers to more places than ever before! So whether your wanting to stroll down the Paseo de la Reforma, body surf in the crystal-blue waters of Mexico’s Caribbean, or go deep-sea fishing for humongous marlin in the Pacific, starting next summer we’re your airline! Schedules and great low fares are available at www.southwest.com or www.airtran.com.

(Southwest Airlines Press Release)

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