Nonstops flights to Boston from Southwest Airlines

News added by James Smith under Airline News

Southwest Airlines will begin nonstop service from Denver International Airport to Boston, Reno, Nev., and Spokane, Wash., in January, the carrier announced Thursday.There will be two daily nonstop round trips between DIA and Boston Logan Airport beginning on Jan. 10. There will be one daily nonstop round trip, meanwhile, between DIA and the other two locations, beginning on the same date.

The Dallas-based airline just launched service to Boston on Aug. 16, but Denver passengers heading there have had to connect through Chicago Midway or through Baltimore-Washington International airports.

St. Louis recently became the third city to land a nonstop into Boston, and Denver is now the fourth city to be awarded such a flight by the company.

Similarly, Denver passengers had to connect in another city and sometimes change plans if travelling on Southwest to Spokane or Reno before.

“Denver has been, and will continue to remain, a focus market for us, and we are committed to adding more flights to more places from the Mile High City,” said Bob Jordan, Southwest’s executive vice president of strategy and planning, in a news release.

Southwest tried to buy Frontier Airlines of Denver and bring it out of bankruptcy last month but lost an auction to Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings after merger talks stalled between the Southwest and Frontier pilots’ associations.

Some analysts had said that acquiring a top competitor — Frontier is the No. 2 carrier at DIA, while Southwest is third — was a move Southwest needed to make to continue the three-way war with top carrier United Airlines at the local airport.

Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz denied that the new flights were any kind of reaction to the failure to acquire Frontier, however.

“We are not influenced by external factors,” Mainz said. “The way we build our network and grow at Southwest is to look at where we have demand and how we respond.”

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