Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport is getting a serious expansion from Southwest Airlines: 11 new routes between 2026 and mid-2027, split evenly between eight domestic and three international destinations. It's a big bet on a city where Southwest already runs one of its largest operations — LAS ranks as the carrier's number-two airport by passenger volume in 2025, behind only Denver.
The headline-grabber is Anchorage, launching in May 2026 as a seasonal daily service. It puts Southwest head-to-head with Alaska Airlines, which carried roughly 18,400 passengers on the route in summer 2026 at a load factor under 68% — soft enough that Southwest is starting later in the season for 2027. Also new in April 2026: Santa Rosa in California's wine country, a brand-new destination for the airline's entire network, served daily against Alaska.
March 2027 brings the biggest wave. Boston returns to the map (up to daily, competing with Delta and JetBlue), alongside Knoxville two to three times weekly against Allegiant, Miami five times weekly against American and Frontier, and Philadelphia four times weekly — a route Southwest last flew before 2019. Later in 2027 comes weekly service to Harlingen, deep in south Texas, plus three to four weekly flights to Hilo on Hawaii's Big Island starting August 2026.
The international side is equally notable. 2026 marked the first time Southwest flew internationally from Las Vegas, launching Cancun (up to daily) and Los Cabos (up to daily) in June, with Puerto Vallarta up to five weekly from November. None of these faced direct competition at launch, largely because Alaska had already exited both Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta. Cancun has a shaky history on this route — Volaris, Frontier and JetBlue all tried and quit over the past decade — but Southwest's huge Vegas brand and feed of connecting traffic (about 35% of LAS passengers change planes there) give it a fighting chance.
Not everything stuck, though. Two routes are gone from the LAS map: a planned San Jose, Costa Rica service — which would have been Southwest's longest international flight and first overnight red-eye south of the border — was cancelled in July before it ever launched, and Chicago O'Hare service ended in June 2026 simply because Southwest pulled out of that airport entirely. Frequent flyers to the Windy City needn't worry: up to eight daily departures to Chicago Midway continue.
For travellers, this is genuinely useful news. Vegas locals and visitors get new nonstops to wine country, Hawaii, Alaska and four East Coast and southern cities, often on routes with little or no competition — which historically means lower introductory fares. Leisure travellers in Boston, Miami and Philadelphia get a fresh budget option to Sin City. Just note the snapshot is from October and schedules this far out tend to shift, so double-check timings before booking.
Story via Simple Flying.
