First Southwest Flights Begin To Mexico City And Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Southwest Airlines has reached a milestone in the final stage of its integration of wholly owned subsidiary AirTran Airways by launching Southwest-branded flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Mexico City. All international flights between seven destinations outside the United States and the carrier's nine U.S. gateway cities are now flown by Southwest.

Also beginning Sunday, the Company has completed the integration of booking and frequent flyer functions into Southwest.com, referring all Customers who visit airtran.com to Southwest.com. All bookings for remaining flights on AirTran Airways flown through Dec. 28, 2014, will now be made through Southwest.com and all of AirTran's A+ Rewards Members have Rapid Rewards accounts in the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program, which offers unlimited reward seats, no blackout dates, and points that don't expire. (Flight or Partner earning activity required every 24 months. Benefits apply to points transactions. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply.)

"Even as we approach the end of our integration process, we're growing and expanding our offerings to Customers," said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, and President of AirTran Airways. "We've taken the final step of integrating our international service and industry-leading loyalty benefits into a cohesive, streamlined, and freshly re-designed Southwest.com."

The expansion of service at Dallas Love Field continues today with an additional eight nonstop destinations, following the launch of nonstop itineraries to seven cities that began last month. New flights began today between Dallas (Love Field) and Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, Nashville, New York (LaGuardia), Phoenix, Orange County/Santa Ana, San Diego, and Tampa Bay.

(Image provided by Southwest)

FMI: www.southwest.com