Southwest Airlines begins service at Sarasota-Bradenton

Glenda and Joe Padgett stood at gate B10 at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on Sunday morning, carrying face masks and holding up “welcome” indicators for Southwest Airlines made for them by a pal’s daughter. 

There have been lots of people excitedly ready for Southwest’s first-ever aircraft at Sarasota-Bradenton to land, which it did at 11:34 a.m. Sunday, however the Padgett household’s connection to the first-ever voyage was somewhat extra private. 

Their son, Jared, is a Southwest worker who has labored as an in-flight scheduler for the airline for about 5 years. The Padgetts at the moment are a “Southwest household,” Glenda mentioned, they usually have taken their justifiable share of maiden Southwest voyages.

They have been on Southwest’s first flight from Tampa to Havana, Cuba, and this April, they’re going to be on the maiden voyage from Las Vegas to Fresno, California – these Fresno tickets have been a Christmas current from their son. 

However this flight – the primary one ever on Southwest to their house base of Sarasota-Bradenton – is especially thrilling, particularly since Jared was on it with a number of of his pals. 

“Possibly he’ll come house extra typically now,” Glenda Padgett mentioned of her son whereas holding an indication that mentioned “thanks for including Sarasota to your locations.”

“And now we don’t should drive to Tampa to catch flights,” Joe Padgett mentioned. 

Jared Padgett was certainly one of 116 passengers on the flight from Baltimore to Sarasota-Bradenton that arrived on Sunday. The airline launched service at SRQ over the weekend with service to 4 year-round locations – Houston, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois and Baltimore. The identical aircraft that arrived in Sarasota-Bradenton from Baltimore was scheduled to show round and convey 68 folks to Chicago later that day. 

All 4 of these locations are important for Sarasota-Bradenton in their very own manner. Baltimore is the house of the Baltimore Orioles, which holds its spring coaching season at Sarasota’s Ed Smith Stadium. Chicago is an enormous present tourism driver market and a supply of seasonal residents. And Houston and Nashville have proven promise as potential feeder markets for guests. 

However what’s additionally an enormous deal about flying passengers between Sarasota-Bradenton and people 4 locations is that they’re all massive hubs for Southwest – which means they will hyperlink folks from Sarasota-Bradenton to the Southwest community around the globe. 

“You could possibly be flying there straight if in case you have enterprise in Nashville, but it surely additionally provides the alternatives to go additional,” Steve Goldberg, senior vp of operations and hospitality for Southwest, mentioned. “It provides you the ability of the Southwest community as an alternative of getting to drive to Tampa or all the way down to Fort Myers.”