SWA Interested in Using BWI as Launch for Canadian Flights

Southwest Airlines is interested in launching services to Canada out of BWI and may sign an agreement with another carrier to serve transatlantic routes out of this airport, CEO Gary Kelly said during the annual meeting of shareholders on May 16, 2018.

"Baltimore would be a logical consideration for us as a connecting point to Europe. Flights to Canada from Baltimore would absolutely be something we would be interested in considering," Kelly said.

While both Canadian operations and a partnership on transatlantic routes are under consideration, the launch of the planned services to Hawaii is the LCC's most pressing business focus for 2018.

In order to be profitable, the routes to Canada would need at least half of its passenger loads to originate from Canada. This could pose a challenge to the carrier which traditionally depends on American passengers, even on international routes.

Transatlantic routes, which Southwest would not operate directly but through a code-share agreement with another, probably European carrier, would be demanding from a technological and marketing point of view.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Baltimore is currently Southwest's second-largest hub with 1,470 weekly departures, trailing behind MDW , RDU with 1,617 weekly departures. The LCC is the dominant airline in Baltimore, having a 67.79% market share by capacity. The carrier's present international network out of the airport encompasses six predominantly leisure destinations: Cancún, Montego Bay, Punta Cana, Aruba, Nassau Int'l, and San José Juan Santamaría, as well as San Juan Luis Muñoz Marin in Puerto Rico.