Southwest takes over AirTran routes to Punta Cana and Mexico City, launches eight new routes from Love Field

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) reached a milestone in the final stage of its integration of wholly owned subsidiary AirTran Airways by launching Southwest-branded flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Mexico City. All international flights between seven destinations outside the United States and the carrier’s nine U.S. gateway cities are now flown by Southwest.

Southwest has completed the integration of booking and frequent flyer functions into Southwest.com, referring all Customers who visit airtran.com to Southwest.com. All bookings for remaining flights on AirTran Airways flown through December 28, 2014, will now be made through Southwest.com and all of AirTran’s A+ Rewards Members have Rapid Rewards accounts in the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® frequent flyer program, which offers unlimited reward seats, no blackout dates, and points that don’t expire. (Flight or Partner earning activity required every 24 months. Benefits apply to points transactions. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply.)

The expansion of service at Dallas Love Field continued with the launch of additional eight nonstop destinations, following the launch of nonstop itineraries to seven cities that began last month. New flights began yesterday (November 2) between Dallas (Love Field) and Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, Nashville, New York (LaGuardia), Phoenix, Orange County/Santa Ana, San Diego, and Tampa.

Additional nonstop service between the San Francisco Bay Area and North Texas begins after the first of next year when new flights between Dallas Love Field and both San Francisco (SFO) and Oakland (OAK) begin on January 6, 2015.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. The sun will be setting next month for AirTran Airways when the last Boeing 717 flight is operated between Atlanta and Tampa on December 28. All of the AirTran 717s will be leased to Delta. Boeing 717-231 N985AT (msn 55090) banks on its final turn on the river approach to Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA).

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