SAVANNAH, GA – The Savannah Airport Commission is pleased to announce that Southwest Airlines has plans to begin service at Savannah/Hilton Head International (SAV) in 2021.
“We are thrilled to announce our intent to begin service at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in 2021,” said Steve Goldberg, Senior Vice President Operations and Hospitality, Southwest Airlines. “At Southwest, we’re known for our Southwest Hospitality, and we’re eager to demonstrate our friendly style and value to the residents of Coastal Georgia and South Carolina’s Low Country. We also look forward to bringing travelers from across our extensive network to two of the country’s best leisure destinations: Savannah and Hilton Head Island. We appreciate the warm welcome and will announce further details of our routes and fares in the near future.”
The addition of Southwest Airlines to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport means that SAV will now have nine airlines with non-stop service to over twenty-eight destinations. The airline has yet to announce the launch date or the destinations but plans to start service in 2021. Last year, over 3M passengers flew in and out SAV and with the addition of Southwest Airlines next year, that number is expected to climb.
Savannah Airport Commission Director Greg Kelly expressed the Commission’s excitement in adding Southwest Airlines “While we have accomplished a great deal in terms of our service over the past five years, there remained one big void in our market. Now that void will be filled. We appreciate the confidence Southwest has shown in our market in making this decision especially in these extraordinarily challenging times for the aviation industry. It is up to all of us to show them they made the right decision,” Kelly said.
“We are very pleased to finally have Southwest announce service to the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport and the region we serve. We have invested a lot of time and effort into this over many years, and it is very rewarding to see the results of that effort come to fruition,” said airport commission Chairman Steve Green. “While we recognize the extreme challenges the airlines are currently facing, we are confident that Southwest will see the benefit of this decision by seeing and exceeding the passenger levels they need to be successful here. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership.”
About Southwest Airlines
In its 50th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary customer service delivered to a customer base topping 130M passengers in 2019. Southwest became the nation’s largest domestic air carrier in 2003 and maintains that ranking based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded. In peak travel seasons during 2019, Southwest operated more than 4,000 weekday departures among a network of 101 destinations in the United States and 10 additional countries. In early 2020, the carrier added service to Hilo, Hawaii, and Cozumel, Mexico for a total of 103 airports served.