Southwest Adding Flights From Milwaukee

Southwest Airlines is expanding its service out of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport with new non-stop flights to Miami.

Beginning June 12th, the carrier will begin running a non-stop flight to Miami International Airport every Saturday this summer with the last flight of the season on September 4th. The carrier also announced expansions of existing services it operates out of Mitchell.

Southwest is already the airline with the largest footprint at the airport. It flew 51% of all passengers that traveled through the airport in March.

The airport has been trying in recent years to encourage more local and Wisconsin residents to fly out of Mitchell, as opposed to Chicago airports like O’Hare International Airport. Airport Director Brian Dranzik said in a statement announcing the new Southwest flights, “We are continuing to win this new service because Wisconsin travelers are choosing our hometown airport.”

As the air travel industry rebounds from the nosedive in air traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dranzik said Mitchell can capitalize on the growing demand for air travel by convincing more flyers to use the airport.

“The more we continue to do that, the more service we will get as the air travel industry emerges from the pandemic,” he said.

In less than three months, three new airlines have started operating service out of Mitchell, as Urban Milwaukee reported, with Spirit, Sun Country and Jet Blue AirLines all announcing non-stop flights to various national and international hubs.

With the addition of Miami, Southwest now serves seven cities in Florida with non-stop service including Sarasota, Tampa Bay, Fort Walton, Orlando, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale.

The carrier also announced Monday that it is extending roundtrip flights on Saturdays to Sarasota through the end of October, and an additional round trip will run every Sunday until September.

Roundtrips to Destin-Fort Walton Beach flying every Saturday will run from June to September, and daily flights to Fort Lauderdale are also being extended to September.

Southwest was started in 1971 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Before the pandemic hit, the company says it was flying approximately 4,000 flights a day between more than 100 destinations in the U.S. and 10 countries.