Southwest Airlines adds direct flights from BWI to West Coast cities

The weather is getting colder, election day is approaching – it’s the perfect time to avoid falling into an abyss of existential dread by planning your next summer vacation. And Southwest Airlines has some good news for travelers who prefer to depart from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The Dallas-based carrier, which handles about 70% of BWI’s air traffic, has announced six new nonstop routes between BWI and the West Coast starting in mid-2025. They include flights to and from San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, as well as to three other California airports: Long Beach, San Jose and Ontario, east of Los Angeles.

Beginning June 5, flights between BWI and both Portland and Seattle will be daily.

But remember your eye mask and neck pillow – the return flights from all these cities will be “red eye” flights at night. Southwest already operates six other overnight flights to BWI. They are from Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and Phoenix.

“Every flight in our network is a route,” Chip Perry, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, said in an email. “If we fly one way, we fly it the same with the same frequency the other way. The caveat here is that the one daily flight FROM Baltimore to the six airports above is not a red-eye flight, but the flights INTO Baltimore – of which there is also a daily from these six airports – are red eyes.”

Southwest now offers service to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, but travelers typically have to catch a connecting flight in cities like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

The new routes are the latest service expansion for the airline that has almost single-handedly driven BWI’s growth.

Despite a holiday meltdown in 2022 and a difficult negotiation with its pilots union, Southwest continues to be an airline of choice for Baltimore-area residents. That helped BWI set a record last year for international passengers.

“These new flights will promote tourism and business development for our state and region,” Ricky Smith, the executive director and CEO of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, said in a news release. “We are working to improve the travel product for our customers and at the same time create more opportunities for flight service from our airline partners.”