Southwest Airlines Announces the Return of Direct Flights from Midland to Austin

Southwest Airlines has announced the return of direct service flights from Midland to Austin coming in March 2022.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, MOTRAN was the one who broke the news on Thursday (September 16, 2021), but Southwest confirmed the statement.

Southwest said this will be the first time they have had direct flights to Austin since 2009.

So with this news, beginning in March, Southwest will have direct flights to five cities out of Midland International: Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Denver, and now Austin.

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Southwest reports that it has nine direct flights, including four to Dallas, daily.

Airport officials say the tentative schedule for the Austin flights include a 6:30am departure from Midland, arriving in Austin at 7:30am.

The return flight is tentatively scheduled to leave Austin at 7:50pm, with an arrival in Midland at 8:55pm.

MOTRAN has been working on this plan since 2019 when influential political and business members met with Southwest Airlines to convince them to add the direct flight to Austin.

Speakers at that event included Nadine Craddick, James Beauchamp, and Ray and Lorraine Perryman.

“We are thrilled,” said Beauchamp, president of MOTRAN. “I think most people will never understand how many conversations were taking place behind the scenes. We need to thank our partners at the Midland and Odessa development corporations for supporting our work to share the data and information needed, Lorraine and Dr. Perryman for helping host Southwest and his economic modeling, and finally, Nadine Craddick who has been in continued contact even through a pandemic so that Southwest Airlines never forget we are out here."

As stated before, direct flights to Austin will begin in March 2022.