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Southwest Airlines has opened another major tranche of its 2027 schedule, extending bookings through August 2, and unlocking 23 new or returning routes alongside numerous frequency increases. The announcement continues an unusually active period of network reshaping: earlier schedule updates produced separate packages of new or restored links as Southwest has moved aircraft between weaker markets and airports where it sees greater opportunity.
Three airports help explain where that strategy is heading. Austin, Nashville and San Diego have repeatedly benefited from Southwest’s recent expansion, but for different reasons. Austin is becoming an increasingly important competitive battleground with 
Delta Air Lines, Nashville is developing into a major connecting complex, and San Diego has emerged as one of Southwest’s fastest-growing West Coast markets.
Southwest Is Fighting Back Against Delta In Austin
Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is perhaps the most strategically interesting part of Southwest’s latest expansion. The carrier is adding three tropical destinations from the Texas capital for summer 2027, including new nonstop service to Liberia’s Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR) in Costa Rica. Austin-Liberia will operate on Saturdays and Sundays between June 5 and August 1, adding to Southwest’s previously announced service from Austin to San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) service and a series of domestic additions. Southwest had already scheduled a record 141 departures on peak days from Austin during the 2027 spring-break period.
Route | Summer 2027 Service | Status |
|---|---|---|
Austin – Bozeman | Saturdays | New seasonal service |
Austin – Liberia | Saturdays & Sundays | New route |
Austin – Nassau | Saturdays & Sundays | New route |
Austin – Portland | Daily | Returning seasonal route; last operated in 2018 |
Austin – Punta Cana | Saturdays & Sundays | New route |
Austin – Sarasota | Saturdays | Returning seasonal route; last operated in 2023 |
Austin – Savannah | Weekends | New route |
The urgency comes from Delta. Southwest remains Austin’s clear largest airline with a 42% market share, and having reached 132 daily departures in summer 2026, is increasing still further to a record 141 departures on peak days in 2027. But Delta has rapidly established itself as the airport’s No. 2 carrier (19% market share) and is targeting more than 70 peak-day departures to around 30 destinations by summer 2027, including a new Austin-Paris service from March 27. Southwest’s growth is therefore also about fighting back to protect the scale advantage it already possesses.
The competition increasingly extends beyond route maps. Southwest opened an Austin crew base in 2026, and has chosen the airport for one of its first proprietary lounges, due to arrive in late 2027. Daniel Jones, Southwest’s Vice President of Network Planning, explained that amidst all the change, adding routes to exciting new destinations like Costa Rica is about reinforcing its leadership status:
“We are thrilled to bring this new service to Austin, where we have been the hometown carrier in the Texas state capital for nearly 50 years. Connecting Austin with Costa Rica — one of the true gems of the Southwest international franchise — gives our loyal customers in Austin even more reason to choose Southwest.”
Nashville Is Becoming A Bigger Southwest Connecting Complex for 2027
Nashville International Airport‘s (BNA) growth tells a different story. Earlier this year, Southwest had already lined up new additions in the form of daily Nashville-Des Moines and Nashville-Wichita flights for March 2027, alongside Saturday service to Aruba, Montego Bay, St. Thomas and Liberia. The newest schedule extends some of these routes into the summer, while adding Boise and Bozeman to extend BNA’s reach into the Mountain West, while Nassau and Providenciales add two more Caribbean leisure markets.
Route | Summer 2027 Service | Status |
|---|---|---|
Nashville – Boise | Summer seasonal | New route |
Nashville – Bozeman | Summer seasonal | Returning route |
Nashville – Nassau | Summer seasonal | New route |
Nashville – Providenciales | Summer seasonal | New route |
Southwest has been growing rapidly at BNA, and plans to operate up to 220 daily departures during peak summer 2027, up 16% from this year. That fast-growing breadth increasingly allows Southwest to use Nashville for connections rather than rely solely on passengers beginning or ending their journeys in Middle Tennessee. The airline has added shorter domestic spokes, including Knoxville and Little Rock, while simultaneously stretching BNA south into the Caribbean and Central America, and even chose Nashville as an additional gateway for its Icelandair partnership, further emphasizing the airport’s usefulness for connecting traffic.
Nashville is receiving investment on the ground as well. It is one of the first four locations selected for Southwest’s new lounge concept, with the planned BNA facility spanning roughly 30,200 square feet (2,806 square meters). Combined with continued route and frequency growth, that increasingly makes Nashville resemble a conventional connecting hub, even if Southwest continues to avoid describing its network in traditional hub-and-spoke terms.
Southwest Keeps Building Its San Diego Stronghold
San Diego International Airport (SAN) represents the West Coast side of the strategy. Southwest had already pushed SAN to a record 140 peak-day departures in 2026, adding frequency to Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle before launching another wave of new and restored routes. By March 2027, its San Diego map is set to encompass around 50 destinations, including new weekend links to both Kona and Lihue in Hawaii.
Route | Summer 2027 Service | Status |
|---|---|---|
San Diego – Bozeman | Mon, Thu, Fri & Sun | Returning seasonal route |
San Diego – Columbus | Summer seasonal | Returning seasonal route |
San Diego – Oklahoma City | Sundays | New/returning summer service |
San Diego – Pittsburgh | Summer seasonal | Returning seasonal route |
Southwest’s position at SAN is particularly valuable because San Diego combines a large local leisure market with intra-state traffic, Hawaii routes, and increasing transcontinental demand. The carrier handled more than nine million San Diego passengers annually in 2025 and remained the airport’s largest airline (37% share), even as 
Alaska Airlines has also expanded aggressively at the southern California airport. Adding Hawaii service, longer domestic routes, and additional frequencies gives Southwest several ways to defend that lead rather than depending on one type of traffic.
In total, the 23 routes in Southwest’s newest schedule may be spread across the country, but Austin, Nashville and San Diego illustrate the broader strategy behind them. Southwest is increasingly concentrating resources where it already possesses substantial scale: defending Austin as Delta grows, turning Nashville into a more powerful connecting complex, and deepening its West Coast position at San Diego. That makes the frequency increases around established strongholds potentially just as significant as the headline-grabbing new routes themselves.
