Southwest Airlines To Fly Out Of SRQ In 2021

SARASOTA, FL — Southwest Airlines will expand its Florida service by adding flights to the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) in the first quarter of 2021, a news release said.

Sarasota will be the carrier's tenth airport served in the state and is the tenth airport in a list of new places to join the Southwest route map in the coming eight months. Service details including the initial flight schedule and fares for Sarasota-Bradenton will be announced soon.

"We'll arrive in Sarasota-Bradenton as Southwest marks 25 years of serving the Sunshine State. Our customers who choose SRQ will land closer to their preferred beaches and business meetings, benefiting from our added investment in the growing region between our longtime cities of Tampa Bay and Ft. Myers," said Steve Goldberg, Southwest Airlines senior vice president of operations and hospitality. "Locals who fly Southwest can also pair their preferred airline and airport and get in the air faster with a shorter drive to SRQ."

This announcement comes as SRQ continues to see increased passenger traffic despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the month of October, passenger traffic at the airport climbed to 69 percent of the 2019 level.

This number has been steadily improving in recent months. Traffic for September was at the 53 percent level of 2019 and both July and August were at the 43 percent level of 2019.

Passengers totaled 110,883 for October 2020 compared to 160,327 passengers in October 2019. Year-to-date figures show that airport passenger traffic is down 35 percent compared to 2019 with 1,011,677 passengers using the airport so far this year.

November brings additional air service with JetBlue Airways starting new nonstop service to Newark, and Allegiant Air starting new nonstop service to Boston and returning seasonal service to Louisville, Kentucky and South Bend, Indiana. Delta Air Lines will return service to New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Sun Country Airlines returns seasonal service to Minneapolis.

“We continue to see our airport rebounding much faster than other airports across the country. Our October passenger level was just shy of where it was in 2018 and each month, we continue to see our passenger levels climb,” said Rick Piccolo, the airport’s president and CEO. “Since the start of the pandemic, we have implemented numerous measures to create a clean and safe environment for travelers who use our airport. We are excited to welcome back our residents and visitors as we enter our busy holiday season.”.

Some of the cleaning and safety measures that are in place at SRQ include plastic shields at all customer service counters, touchless hand sanitizer stations, social distancing markers in queuing lines, courtesy thermal temperature scanners and increased janitorial staff to clean high-touch surfaces. Employees, tenants, and passengers must wear protective face coverings to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Also, as passenger numbers continue to increase at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, and the busy holiday season approaches, the airport will reopen amenities to full-service operation by Sunday. These amenities include the valet parking, premium shade lot, shuttle bus service to long-term, and the opening of nearly all restaurants and gift shops, including Dewar’s Clubhouse Bar, the PGA Tour Shop, Dunkin Donuts, Gulf Coast TravelMart, CNBC Gift Shop, Starbucks and Gulf Breeze Café.