Southwest Airlines is now flying to Mexico

Southwest Airlines began flying Sunday to Cabo San Lucas and Cancun, its first flights to Mexico, as it took over routes that rapidly disappearing AirTran Airways had been flying.

Here are the three routes:

Orange County, Calif.	Cabo San Lucas
Atlanta	Cancun
Baltimore	Cancun

On Saturday, Southwest will add a weekly flight from Milwaukee to Cancun.

With Sunday’s launch to two Mexican cities, Southwest now flies to five of the seven international destinations that AirTran had served. On July 1, it had begun flights to Nassau, the Bahamas; Aruba; and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

It will reach the other two on Nov. 2 when Southwest replaces AirTran into Mexico City and Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.

AirTran will fly its last flight on Dec. 28, a 10:25 p.m. departure from Atlanta to Tampa, Fla. People looking for AirTran flights on Nov. 2 or afterward are now being directed to the Southwest website for booking.

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Southwest Airlines to start Mexico service in August

Southwest Airlines Co., which announced its first international destinations in late January, said Monday that it will begin service to Mexico in August.

Southwest will take over the international service from subsidiary AirTran Airways Inc. on Aug. 10.

Southwest will begin flights to Cancun from Atlanta, Baltimore and Milwaukee, and to Cabo San Lucas from Orange County, Calif. In October, it will add flights to the two Mexican cities from Denver.

The Dallas-based carrier extended its schedule from Aug. 9 to Oct. 31. However, as Southwest scheduler Bill Owen took note in the airline’s “Nuts About Southwest” blog, the new schedule left unanswered some big questions.

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