Southwest Airlines will now fly non-stop between San Antonio and Kansas City. This is one of many steps the city is taking to increase the number of destinations reachable from San Antonio.
To some it may come as a surprise, but San Antonio’s interim Aviation Director Tom Jones says Kansas City has the second highest number of daily passengers in and out of San Antonio.
“Our current numbers show us about 109 people per day each way.”
The flights will begin on Nov. 6 with a daily morning flight out of San Antonio and an evening flight returning from Kansas City.
San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez says San Antonio has many business ties to Kansas City and believes there’s opportunity to develop more.
“There are some deliberate reasonings, facts and figures that went into Kansas City. From the business side, I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised. For those that are thinking ‘Why?: It’s a good destination plus it’s a fun town to go visit."
Boston has the highest number of daily passengers at about 120.
Southwest Management Director of Business Development Dave Harvey says the company is analyzing that route. “Boston now is the largest remaining unserved market out of San Antonio. So that is something that we’ve been investigating and that’s something we’ll continue to monitor closely as we look at those next best opportunities.”
Also high on San Antonio’s list is Washington D.C.’s Reagan International but an old law requires new routes over 1,200 miles receive congressional approval. The city has incentive money of up to $100,000 to airlines that provide new daily non-stop flights out of SAT. Southwest intends to apply for that money. When the flights begins San Antonio will serve 38 non-stop destinations. The airline as also adding additional service to Houston.
