Southwest Airlines announced Thursday that it will commence nonstop, seasonal service between Pittsburgh and San Diego next summer.

Flights will begin June 8 and operate through August on Saturdays, according to the airline’s schedule extension. The inbound flight will leave from San Diego at 8:35 a.m. local time and arrive in Pittsburgh at 4:10 p.m. The outbound flight will depart from PIT at 4:35 p.m. and arrive in San Diego at 6:35 p.m.

Southwest also announced it will resume seasonal service Myrtle Beach in June with daily flights, increasing to twice daily on Saturdays. Additionally, service to Nashville will increase to three daily flights on peak days.

Overall, Southwest is scheduled to operate 31 daily departures on average from PIT next summer, the most it has ever operated in the summer from the airport.

“Southwest is continuing its plans to better optimize its network in the post-pandemic environment, responding to leisure and business travel trends, and we hope our customers at PIT enjoy this new transcontinental service to sunny Southern California,” said Brook Sorem, Vice President Network Planning at Southwest Airlines.

San Diego joins Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle among west coast cities served nonstop from PIT—markets that continue to grow.

This summer, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines each resumed double daily service to Seattle and San Francisco, a win for Pittsburgh’s burgeoning technology economy. And in September, Breeze Airways began nonstop service to Los Angeles, joining Spirit Airlines’ existing daily flights on the route.

The Pittsburgh-San Diego route was last flown by Frontier Airlines in January 2019.

San Diego brings Southwest’s destination count to 19 total cities served nonstop from PIT, the most of any airline, as the carrier continues to steadily grow its presence in the local market.

“Southwest has continued to invest in the Pittsburgh market through new destinations and additional service to existing destinations. The carrier is a great partner, taking passengers to 19 cities from PIT and recognizing the demand in our region,” said Bryan Dietz, SVP of Air Service and Commercial Development at PIT. “The latest addition of San Diego adds to our growing West Coast portfolio and we look forward to more growth there in the future.”

In September, the airline upped nonstop flights to Phoenix from weekend-only to daily. Earlier this month, Southwest increased service to Austin to daily, year-round from Sunday-only and added a fourth daily flight to Orlando.

And Southwest will add a third daily nonstop flight to Atlanta starting Nov. 5.

Southwest has grown to become the leading airline in market share in terms of passengers at PIT since starting service in 2005. The airline claims 24.4 percent of total passengers carried at the airport, year-to-date through September. For the month of October, Southwest is currently operating an average of 29 daily departures total from PIT.

Southwest plans to operate 31 total daily departures on average from PIT next summer, its largest summer schedule ever at the airport. (Photo by Beth Hollerich)