Southwest Airlines has added a new nonstop route to Nashville at Bradley International Airport, the latest new route for the Windsor Locks-based airfield even amid turmoil in the commercial aerospace industry.
Daily nonstop service to Nashville International Airport via Southwest is scheduled to begin March 21, according to the quasi-public Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA), which oversees Bradley. Southwest will run one flight from Bradley to Nashville and one return flight each day.
“Nashville is a popular destination that will also offer our passengers key connectivity to major destinations across the west coast,” CAA Executive Director Kevin Dillon said.
News of the new route comes just a couple weeks after CAA announced new nonstop routes to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Cancún, Mexico via carrier JetBlue.
The new routes are a win for Bradley, which has experienced the same cataclysmic drop in passenger traffic since COVID-19 began battering the industry in March and April.
Airport traffic reached its nadir in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping off by about 95% when compared to the same period last year. That’s improved slightly, to where Bradley is serving about 75% to 80% fewer passengers than they’d expect during the same time in a normal year, Dillon said.
Between April and June, Bradley’s operating revenues were $10 million below budget, according to CAA figures.Â
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