Only 63 Miles: Southwest Airlines' 15 New Ultra-Short Routes In 2026

James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough University and Cranfield University, James has a PhD in Airline Strategy and Economics. James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. He taught airline strategy and economics to undergraduate and postgraduate students for five years and has worked closely with multiple carriers on route and market intelligence projects. He is based near London, UK.

Southwest Airlines is the world's fourth-largest airline for flights in 2026. On a typical day, 3,937 movements (takeoffs and landings combined) are available, up by nearly 1% year-on-year. However, the hybrid operator's activity in 2023 and 2024 was higher.

The airline's average stage length is 678 nautical miles (1,256 km) this year. Southwest now has 159 daily services under 175 nautical miles (324 km), which is the most for 18 years. This is primarily because of a greater focus on connecting flights, with some extremely short spokes for feed reasons.

Southwest's 15 Shortest Routes

Southwest's entire network in 2026 was explored using Cirium Diio data. This process identified 15 routes, as shown in the following table and on the subsequent interactive map (zoom in/out and move the map around).

The shortest link remains Denver International Airport (DEN) to Colorado Springs, which began five years ago. Unsurprisingly, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) shows that nearly all passengers (96%) transferred to another flight in DEN, which is the airline's busiest airport for the total amount of connecting traffic.

Nearly half of the following entries started in 2024, 2025, or 2026. They include four new intrastate markets, with two beginning this year: Nashville International Airport (BNA) to Knoxville and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Tucson. Flights on both routes started on March 5, 2026. In the first three months of service, they had a load factor of 76.2% and 66.9%, respectively.

Southwest Between Houston & Austin

This very short link from HOU to AUS started 49 years ago. It was, of course, one of the carrier's original markets. It was Southwest's shortest route for many, many years. Showing how dramatically things have changed, it was number one until as recently as a decade ago, when it was overtaken by flights from MDW to Grand Rapids' Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR).

The DOT shows that Southwest transported 15.6 million round-trip passengers between HOU and AUS from 1990 until 2025. 278,000 passengers were carried in 2025, which was the airport pair's lowest-ever volume except for the COVID-hit 2020 (163,000). The same source indicates that only 58% of seats were filled last year. If that continues, expect more changes to the frequency and schedule.

Hardly surprisingly, 83% of the traffic (231,000 passengers) connected to another flight at either AUS or HOU or both airports. Despite the short overland travel time, 17% of the market was local (47,000); they only flew between the two places. When the average fare is adjusted for distance, HOU was Southwest's third-lowest result from AUS for total revenue per available seat mile.

Southwest Flights From Orlando To Sarasota

Southwest began flying from MCO to Sarasota on August 5, 2025. For connectivity reasons, two daily services have nearly always been available, which remains the case today. US DOT information for August 2025 to June 2026 (the most recent month available) indicates that 99,000 round-trip passengers were carried. However, the load factor was just 54.9%, but that was driven more by last year.

The exceptionally short route covers just 90 nautical miles (167 km). It is virtually entirely to feed Southwest flights at MCO, which is the carrier's ninth most-served airport this year. Due to the location of MCO and Orlando's popularity as a tourist and conference destination, fewer than a quarter of passengers connect there. Of course, various exceptions exist, including SRQ, with 92% of passengers transiting.