In summer 2023 Southwest Airlines (LUV) first started hinting that it would introduce red-eye routes.
The airline, founded out of Dallas in 1967 and operating its first flight in 1971, has over the years become known for a unique business model. Travelers do not get assigned seats; rather, they enter based on fare class and choose from the available seats. And Southwest offered two free checked bags, even in economy. (That open seating policy might well be going away.)
That said, the airline has also relied on a reservation system that excluded routes that left on one day and arrived the next morning.
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After confirming that its first red-eye flights will start running in February 2025, Southwest has now specified the new routes.
Southwest Air: major Hawaii, Nashville expansion
Focused on Hawaii due to the time difference from the mainland U.S., the new routes will run from Honolulu to Las Vegas and Phoenix, the Big Island’s Kona to Las Vegas and Maui’s Kahului to Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The Las Vegas routes will start in February 2025 while the ones to Phoenix will join the roster on April 8. Each will run daily. They will all depart and arrive at similar times — around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the previous day to arrive around 6 a.m. Hawaiian time the following day.
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“The five new flights will increase connectivity from the Hawaiian Islands to dozens of Southwest destinations,” the airline says of the new routes.
While not red-eye, the airline also announced a major Nashville expansion with new daily flights to the city from Albuquerque, N.M., Tulsa, Okla., and Jackson, Miss., as well as six-times-a-week flights from Providence, R.I., and five-times-a-week flights from Albany, N.Y.
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Southwest Air presence in Nashville at ‘all-time high’
“The new flights will boost Southwest’s scheduled presence in Nashville to an all-time high of 174 Sunday departures in April and May 2025,” the airline said in a further statement.
Some of the Nashville routes are also making historic returns; Southwest used to run the flight between Nashville and Albuquerque in the 1970s and early 1980s but phased it out in May 1988 while the Providence route was canceled in November 2011.
All these changes as Southwest is under the microscope over its business decisions and lagging financial performance.
Elliott Investment Management, which recently acquired enough of the company’s stock to call a special shareholder meeting, is calling on investors who agree with its assertion that Chief Executive Bob Jordan should be ousted to buy back shares and vote in a meeting that could be held as early as next week.
Southwest Air’s leadership in turn has been saying that it is already taking steps — of which the new routes and introduction of red-eye flights are part — to turn the company’s finances around.
“We’re now ushering in a new era at Southwest, moving swiftly and deliberately to transform the company by elevating the customer experience, improving financial performance, and driving sustainable shareholder value,” Jordan said in a statement.
