Southwest Airlines to begin Baltimore-Costa Rica flights in March

A little more than two months after launching its first international service, Southwest Airlines Co. announced plans Friday to expand its network to Central America.

Dallas-based Southwest said it plans to launch service from Baltimore to San Jose, Costa Rica, on March 7. The daily round trip marks Southwest’s first service to Central America.

Southwest launched its first international flights on July 1 and will be flying to seven non-U.S. cities by the end of the year as it absorbs merger partner AirTran Airway’s destinations.

In addition to its first foray outside Mexico and the Caribbean, the Costa Rica flights mark Southwest’s first international destination that hadn’t been served by AirTran.

“We’re ready to add the adventure and beauty of Costa Rica to a growing horizon of international possibility available to the more than 100 million customers who fly with us each year,” chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said in Southwest’s announcement.

“Our people and policies bring unique value to the travel experience and we have big plans to extend that value to international destinations where our customers want to go. Our substantial presence in Baltimore/Washington is a natural place to do that by bringing nonstop access to new, international markets,” he said.

But customers won’t be able to fly to any of Southwest’s international destinations directly from Dallas Love Field. While restrictions on U.S. flights out of Love Field expire on Oct. 13, federal law will continue to bar nonstop international flights out of Dallas. Travelers out of Love Field will need to connect to another Southwest flight out of another airport if they want to fly to a non-U.S. city.

Southwest began service to Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI) in 1993. It is now the biggest airline there, as the airline noted in its application filed Friday with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Southwest is the largest U.S. airline in terms of domestic passengers carried and provides more service at BWI than any other carrier by a wide margin with 204 daily flights to 60 cities. Southwest’s proposed new international service will provide the only scheduled nonstop flights to Costa Rica from BWI,” the application said.

In 2013, Southwest and AirTran together carried 70.8 percent of Baltimore’s passengers — 58.6 percent on Southwest and 12.2 percent on AirTran, or 13.2 million and 2.7 million respectively of the airport’s 22.5 million passengers.

Next biggest was Delta Air Lines with 9.4 percent of the airport’s passengers: 8.2 percent on mainline Delta flights and 1.2 percent on regional partners.

With Southwest phasing out AirTran, the percentage is quickly shifting to Southwest. In June, the last month for which figures are available, Southwest carried 67.2 percent of Baltimore’s traffic to only 3.9 percent for AirTran. Their combined total had climbed to 71.2 percent of the airport’s traffic.

The flight won’t be the longest in the Southwest network. That title belongs to its Baltimore-Los Angeles flight at 2,320 miles.

But at 2,070 miles, the Baltimore-Costa Rica flight will be the longest in Southwest’s international system, surpassing the current title holder, Baltimore-Aruba at 1,890 miles. It’ll also surpass the 1,970-mile flight from Chicago to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, that Southwest will launch on Nov. 2.

Follow Terry Maxon on Twitter at @tmaxon.