Southwest adds Chicago, Orange County flights

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – It continues to get easier and easier to get to all kinds of places outside of Spokane with the ease of new non-stop airline travel.

Once the butt of a joke that “you can’t get there from here,” Spokane International Airport announced April 30 that Southwest Airlines will offer new seasonal direct flights to both Chicago and Orange County, Calif. beginning June 6. In addition. direct service to San Jose, Calif. resumes on the same date.

The once-daily flights to Chicago will fly into Midway Airport, connections to Orange County will be through John Wayne Orange County Airport while Mineta San Jose International Airport serves the Bay Area.

“New non-stop service represents continued commitment to and investment in our community by Southwest Airlines,” Spokane Airport Board Chair Ezra Eckhardt said in a statement.

Chicago Midway is the 19th nonstop destination offered from SIA and with Orange County and San Jose, Southwest Airlines now services eight nonstop destinations from Spokane to Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland, Phoenix and Sacramento.

“We have been working with Southwest to not only expand nonstop service to these important markets to serve passenger demand, but also to through their extensive network to other parts of the United States,” airport CEO Larry Krauter also said in the release.

San Jose has connections to several cities in Southern California while Chicago provides convenient service to the Washington, DC and Boston metropolitan areas, as well as major cities like Nashville, Raleigh, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Buffalo and South Carolina leisure destinations.

– Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].