Southwest To Operate Record Flights From Denver In Summer 2023

Aaron Karp December 16, 2022

Southwest Airlines will operate more than 300 daily departures from an airport for the first time during the 2023 summer as it restores three routes from Denver (DEN) to northeast US destinations.

In June 2023, Southwest will relaunch seasonal service from DEN to Albany (ALB) and Buffalo (BUF) in New York and Hartford (BDL) in Connecticut. The routes will all be operated weekends-only initially, ramping up to daily from July 11.

The airline will serve 92 destinations from Denver on 303 daily flights on peak summer 2023 schedule days, the most daily departures it has ever served from a single airport. DEN opened 16 new gates on its C Concourse in May 2022 for Southwest.

“In Denver, there are big opportunities to grow,” Southwest VP of network planning Adam Decaire recently told Routes. “There are lots of new gates that just came online.”

From July 11, the airline will restore seasonal daily service between Burbank (BUR) in southern California and Nashville (BNA) in Tennessee. The carrier will additionally restart flights between BNA and San Jose (SJC) in California in June, to be operated on weekends before becoming daily from July 11.

Also on that date, Southwest will resume daily seasonal flights between Kansas City (MCI) and both Milwaukee (MKE) in Wisconsin and Minneapolis (MSP). Flights restarted between MCI and San Antonio (SAT) in June will go from weekends-only to daily frequencies from July 11.

Similarly, the airline will reopen seasonal weekends-only service from Houston Hobby (HOU) to both Pittsburgh (PIT) in Pennsylvania and Sacramento (SAC) in California in June and then up the services to daily from July 11.

Three more routes will be relaunched in June as weekends-only service to become daily seasonal flights from July 11: PIT to Myrtle Beach (MRY) in South Carolina; Las Vegas (LAS) to Louisville (SDF) in Kentucky; and St. Louis (STL) in Missouri to Sarasota (SRQ) in Florida.

Southwest did reveal a single new seasonal route that will be operated Saturdays-only from July 15: Orlando (MCO) to Long Beach (LGB) in California.