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Southwest Airlines' seasonal schedule changes early next year will leave Las Vegas with four fewer daily nonstop roundtrip flights.
The Dallas-based airline, the busiest operating at McCarran International Airport, is laying the groundwork for its integration with AirTran Airways which should boost the number of flights through Las Vegas when that is announced.
The most significant change in Southwest's seasonal shift will leave Las Vegas without nonstop service to and from Manchester, N.H. The airline has about 215 daily flights to and from Las Vegas.
The complex schedule juggling, which required an eight-page chart to explain, details how Southwest will take advantage of holiday travel with 3,182 daily flights, cut service by 102 daily flights in January in the post-holiday lull, then ramp up by 120 flights to a total 3,200 to take advantage of late winter doldrums and spring breaks.
Here's how the schedule changes will affect 18 Las Vegas markets:
• Southwest will drop a single daily flight in January, but bring it back in February to Albuquerque; Baltimore-Washington International; Hartford, Conn.; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Seattle; and Tucson, Ariz.
• In three markets — Buffalo, N.Y.; Denver; and San Diego — it won't reduce the number of flights in January, but will add an extra one in February.
• In one market, Salt Lake City, it will add a daily flight in January and keep it in February.
• In one market, San Francisco, it will maintain its schedule in January, but drop a flight in February.
• In six markets — Chicago's Midway Airport; Manchester, N.H.; Nashville, Tenn.; Ontario, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and St. Louis — Southwest will drop a flight in January and not pick it up in February. The dropped flight to and from Manchester is the only nonstop from Las Vegas on its schedule.
Southwest also announced several new routes mostly affecting its Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, Fla., operations.
The airline didn't give any details about its integration with AirTran, but is expected to announce them within weeks. The big question is how Southwest will use AirTran's largest station, Atlanta, where Southwest currently has no service.
Las Vegas is expected to figure prominently in Southwest's Atlanta plans.
Reno fared well in Southwest's schedule changes, but lost its nonstop service to and from Boise, Idaho. While the airline is discontinuing its two nonstop Boise flights in January, it will add daily flights to Denver, Phoenix and Oakland, Calif., in February.