Colonie

Southwest Airlines is going to resume non-stop flights to Las Vegas starting in October after ending the service a year ago.

Southwest will begin the flights again on a seasonal basis starting on Oct. 3, and the airline has already started booking seats on its website, Southwest.com.

Back in April 2017, Southwest replaced the direct Las Vegas flight with a direct flight to Denver, Colo.

The direct flights to Denver will remain.

"Las Vegas, along with Baltimore and Orlando, was among Southwest's first three destinations when the airline announced Albany service in January of 2000. The Las Vegas flight was exceptionally popular among Capital Region and upstate New York travelers and we welcome its return," Rev. Kenneth Doyle, chairman of the Albany County Airport Authority, said in a statement.

The Southwest.com site priced a round trip ticket from Albany to Las Vegas and back, leaving on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 5 and returning the night of Sunday Oct. 7, at $451.96.

Southwest accounts for 43 percent of all of the travel at Albany International Airport, and when Southwest began service out of Albany in 2000, the number of people traveling out of the airport grew by more than 40 percent in a matter of months, which led the airport to expand parking and other services. Last year, 2.8 million people took flights in and out of Albany.

Southwest also has direct flights from Albany to Baltimore, Chicago-Midway, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa with seasonal service to Fort Myers.





