Southwest Adds More Flights to 7 Cities from PIT, Drops LAX

Spirit continues to offer daily nonstop service to Los Angeles

By Bob Kerlik

Published August 19, 2019

Read Time: 2 mins

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Southwest Airlines shook up its schedule over the weekend, adding additional nonstop service to seven cities from Pittsburgh International Airport while cutting service to Los Angeles.

In January, the airline will add more flights to Atlanta, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Chicago Midway, Fort Myers and Tampa. Daily nonstop service to Los Angeles, which had been largely suspended since June in part due to the grounding of MAX 8 aircraft, will not return in January.

Spirit Airlines still offers daily nonstop service to Los Angeles from PIT.

Southwest said in a statement that the PIT-LAX flight will be discontinued effective Jan. 6, 2020. The cuts are part of a broader shakeup of the airline’s network.

“This change still allows us to offer itineraries with as little as one stop between LAX and PIT, while utilizing our aircraft to meet demand on other routes and frequencies. We are always evaluating our service patterns and performance to ensure that we are offering the right number of seats based on demand from travelers in the communities we serve,” the statement said in part.

The schedule changes leave PIT with a net gain in number of daily flights from Southwest, which carries the highest percentage of passengers at the airport: 26 percent.

Airport officials noted that in addition to nonstop service on Spirit, other nonstop West Coast options include twice daily flights to San Francisco on United and once daily flights to Seattle on Alaska.

Bryan Dietz, vice president of air service development at PIT, said additional service to the West Coast continues to be a priority.

“We know the demand is there,” Dietz said. “It’s a focus of ours and we continue to talk to carriers on a daily basis.”

Other nonstop western destinations from PIT include Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas.