The low-cost carrier has served Midway Airport since 1985, but never at North Side Airport.
“I booked the tickets and had to do a double pick-up to O’Hare,” said Colin Uthe, a Southwest Airlines passenger.
Travelers can now choose from 16 daily flights to Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Nashville and Phoenix. Orlando will be added as a weekend destination starting in March.
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“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re excited to be in northern Chicago,” said Dave Harvey, vice president of Southwest Airlines.
Harvey hopes the expansion will help the Southwest Airlines business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 forced Southwest Airlines to cancel nearly 40% of its daily flights last spring.
“No one knew how deep and how long COVID would impact the industry,” Harvey said.
Harvey said the global pandemic is also why Sunday’s release of O’Hare is even possible.
With the crash of the plane, Southwest Airlines said it had secured access to the newly available gate at Terminal 5 International.
“There’s a lot of corporate and government business in northern Chicago, and some of those travelers aren’t willing to drive to Midway, so we want to be just around the corner and serve the airport of their choice,” Harvey said.
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Southwest Airlines has seen its industry begin to recover, driven by growing demand as part of the country reopens.
“There have been many shelters in their place. It’s encouraging, some of these states, literally only in the last week or two, are starting to open things back,” Harvey said.
In addition to COVID-19, customers may also be concerned that Southwest Airlines will bring the Boeing 737 MAX back on March 11th. The 737 MAX fleet was grounded almost two years ago, after two separate accidents killed 346 people on board. Southwest said it implements flexible policies to make passengers as comfortable as possible when they are ticketed with those planes.
“It’s great to see a company that adapts and rolls its fists and takes advantage of the best situations,” Uthe said.
The expansion of O’Hare Airport remains only a fraction of the approximately 250 Southwest Airline flights from Midway Airport each day. Southwest Airlines has more than 5,000 employees in Chicago. Eighty employees will work on the new operation. Half of these employees moved from Midway, while others moved from other Southwest Hubs. The airline said Chicago’s South Side Airport will always be an “anchor” for the company.
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