Southwest has opened bookings through early August 2027, and the latest schedule drop adds 23 new or returning routes plus a stack of frequency increases. On paper it looks like the usual US leisure sweep — beaches, mountains, tropical escapes. Look closer and three airports explain what the airline is actually up to: Austin, Nashville and San Diego.
Austin is the most combative part of the plan. Delta has muscled in fast at Austin-Bergstrom and now sits at 19% market share, targeting more than 70 peak-day departures to around 30 destinations by summer 2027, including a new Paris route from late March. Southwest, still the clear hometown leader at 42% share with a record 141 peak-day departures planned, is answering with a batch of getaway routes: new nonstops from Austin to Liberia in Costa Rica (weekends from June 5 to August 1), Nassau and Punta Cana, plus seasonal links to Bozeman, Savannah, Sarasota and a Portland route not flown since 2018. It has also opened an Austin crew base and picked the airport for one of its first proprietary lounges, due in late 2027.
Nashville is being reshaped into something that looks a lot like a proper connecting hub, even if Southwest avoids the word. Summer 2027 additions include Boise, Bozeman, Nassau and Providenciales, layering Mountain West and Caribbean options onto previously announced spokes like Des Moines, Wichita and a string of Caribbean Saturday routes. Peak-day departures at BNA are planned at up to 220 this summer, up 16% year on year, and Nashville has even been added as a gateway for the Icelandair partnership. A new lounge of roughly 30,200 square feet signals the same intent.
Out west, San Diego anchors the coastal strategy. Southwest carried more than nine million passengers there in 2025 with a 37% share, the airport's largest, though Alaska is pushing hard. By March 2027 the carrier expects around 50 destinations from SAN, including new weekend Hawaii flights to both Kona and Lihue, alongside returning seasonal service to Bozeman, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma City.
For travellers, the practical upshot is more nonstop options from mid-sized and leisure-heavy cities, especially for summer 2027 beach trips — Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos — now reachable from Texas and Tennessee without connecting through a coastal gateway. Because Southwest opened the schedule this far out, there is real choice on dates and fares if you book early, particularly for the weekend-only tropical routes where seats will be thinner. If you live in Austin, Nashville or San Diego, your hometown airport is about to get a lot more useful.
