Southwest Airlines adds three nonstop routes as San Antonio airport expands services

Southwest Airlines will launch nonstop routes from San Antonio International Airport to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale in July and restart a nonstop route to Cancún to June, officials said Thursday. Southwest Airlines will launch nonstop routes from San Antonio International Airport to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale in July and restart a nonstop route to Cancún to June, officials said Thursday. Photo: Provided By Southwest Airlines / Photo: Provided By Southwest Airlines / Image 1 of / 71 Caption Close Southwest Airlines adds three nonstop routes as San Antonio airport expands services 1 / 71 Back to Gallery

Southwest Airlines will add two new daily nonstop routes from San Antonio International Airport to Oakland, California and Fort Lauderdale in July, officials said Thursday.

Southwest Airlines will also restart a nonstop daily route to Cancún in June, airport and city officials announced Thursday at a press conference accompanied by a mariachi band at City Hall.

The additional flights will give the San Antonio airport 43 nonstop routes by July 2018, said Aviation Director Russ Handy.

City Manager Sheryl Sculley said more nonstop flights will come as the city grows its business base.

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“As we work at economic development in the community, those flights will follow,” Sculley said.

Oakland and Fort Lauderdale were considered high priorities for San Antonio International Airport under the city’s air service development plan, Handy said at the news conference.

About 34 percent of business travelers out of San Antonio International Airport land in destinations on the West Coast, Handy said. Those travelers were clamoring for an option that gave them easy access to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, he said.

“We had not only numbers but real companies that were telling us that,” Handy said.

And Fort Lauderdale is a vital connecting market to Latin America and South America for leisure and business travel, Handy said.

“We don’t just look at passengers terminating at Fort Lauderdale,” Handy said. “We look at the whole string we look at who’s going to Latin America and who’s going to the Caribbean.”

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Nonstop flights to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale will be optimal for San Antonio-based data security firm Jungle Disk, said CEO Bret Piatt. The company is looking to expand into Latin America within the next year so connecting to Fort Lauderdale could be crucial, Piatt said.

And flying into Oakland International Airport instead of San Francisco International Airport is actually more convenient for San Antonio techies who need access to Silicon Valley, Piatt said.

“You can be in downtown San Francisco faster from the Oakland airport via BART than you can to downtown San Francisco via BART from SFO,” Piatt said.

The San Antonio airport has added 20 flights in the past 18 months, including many nonstop routes. The airport recorded its 15th consecutive month of growing passenger numbers in September with more than 687,000 travelers that month, officials announced earlier this week.

Southwest Airlines operates routes to 20 markets from San Antonio International Airport, said David Harvey, Southwest Airlines managing director of business development. Harvey said the airline plans to continue flying a one-stop direct route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C.

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