Southwest Airlines announces five new destinations from Sarasota-Bradenton airport

Southwest Airlines announced on Friday that the airline will be bringing five new routes to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport starting in June.

The new nonstop destinations are:

• Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE); Saturday, seasonal.
• Cincinnati, Ohio: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport CVG; Saturday, seasonal.
• Denver, Colorado: Denver International Airport (DEN); daily, seasonal.
• Kansas City, Missouri: Kansas City International Airport (MCI); Saturday, seasonal.
• St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL): daily.

The new routes are slated to begin on June 6.

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The new routes solidify Southwest Airlines' rapid growth after launching service at SRQ earlier this year. The airline began with four routes – Baltimore, Houston, Nashville and Chicago – and quickly increased that to 10 in March with flights to Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Grand Rapids.

In March, SRQ set a passenger traffic record for the first time in more than 30 years with 277,0590 passengers, breaking its previous single-month record of 255,247 passengers set in March 1990.

Traffic was 74% higher than in February 2021, when 159,772 passengers passed through the airport.

Other airlines have extended their service at SRQ this year, with American Airlines bringing back a daily flight to Chicago; Delta Air Lines extending its daily service to Detroit; United Airlines extending its seasonal service to Denver; and Allegiant Air adding flights to Charlotte.