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Southwest Airlines added its third airport in Tennessee today with Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) joining Memphis International Airport (MEM) and Nashville International Airport (BNA) already served. The airline will begin four new routes on March 5th with Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Dallas Love Field (DAL), Nashville International Airport (BNA), and Orlando International Airport (MCO) all being added.
While Southwest has never flown to Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS), AirTran Airways did until 2012 (Southwest acquired AirTran in 2011). Each of the new flights will be offered daily with the exception of the Nashville International Airport (BNA) route, which will be offered 2x daily.
Bob Jordan, CEO, President, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Southwest Airlines, said:
Thanks to the partnership from Gov. Bill Lee, the State of Tennessee, and the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, we’re looking forward to serving Knoxville with our unmatched Customer Service. We’re celebrating another exciting milestone in our journey to transform Southwest Airlines – giving Customers more reasons to choose Southwest. Plus, we’re affirming our longtime commitment to California with new routes from San Diego’s reimagined Terminal 1.”
Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) is the second destination that Southwest has added this summer. In July, Southwest announced that it was adding its first new route in more than four years. St. Thomas’ Cyril E. King International Airport (STT) will be the Dallas-based carrier’s 14th tropical destination when flights begin in early 2026. One more new route is expected to be announced this summer.
Anthony’s Take: Southwest is seeing lots of changes. Some are good and others not so much. While these new routes are nice, others are likely going to be cut in the near future.
(Image Credits: Owen Lystrup via Unsplash and Southwest Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
As a tertiary airport we’ve been waiting for Southwest for a lot of years. Nice to see it finally happen. Now if we could get a nonstop to JFK…