The low-cost airline has served Midway Airport since 1985, but never at North Side Airport.
“Booked the tickets and had to do it as a double take as far as it is with O’Hare,” said Southwest Airlines passenger Colin Uthe.
Travelers can now choose from 16 daily flights to Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Nashville and Phoenix. Orlando will be added as a weekend destination from March.
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“It has taken a long time, but we are excited to be moving to North Chicago,” said Dave Harvey, vice president of Southwest Airlines.
Harvey hopes the expansion will help Southwest Airlines operations 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 the impact of COVID on the industry would be,” said Harvey.
Harvey said the global pandemic is also why the O’Hare Sunday launch is even possible.
With air travel down sharply, Southwest Airlines said it has secured newly available gate access at International Terminal 5.
“There are a lot of great business and government companies in up north Chicago, and some of those travelers aren’t willing to drive to Midway, so we want to be around the corner, and we want to serve their favorite airport,” Harvey said.
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Southwest Airlines saw its industry begin to recover, which is driven by growing demand as more of the country reopens.
“There has been a lot of protections. It is encouraging that some of those states, literally in the past two weeks, are starting to open things up again,” said Harvey.
Aside from COVID-19, customers may also be concerned about Southwest Airlines returning the Boeing 737 MAX plane on March 11. The 737 MAX fleet was grounded worldwide nearly two years ago after two separate crashes killed 346 people on board. Southwest said it implements flexible policies to make passengers as comfortable as possible when they get tickets on those planes.
“It’s really nice to see a company just adapt and go with the punches and get the best out of situations,” said Uthe.
The O’Hare Airport expansion remains only a fraction of Southwest Airline’s approximately 250 daily flights from Midway Airport. Southwest Airlines has more than 5,000 employees in Chicago. Eighty employees will be employed in the new operation. Half of those executives moved from Midway, while others moved from other Southwest Hubs. The airline said Chicago South Side Airport will always be an “anchor” for the company.
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