Southwest is dropping 7 St. Louis routes this summer as it pivots capacity to Nashville — see which cities are losing nonstop flights and why.
Southwest Airlines is eliminating seven nonstop routes from St. Louis Lambert International Airport this summer, cutting service to five Midwest cities and two California destinations as the carrier shifts capacity toward Nashville.
The route cuts, confirmed through data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, take effect in the third quarter of 2026, covering July through September, compared with the same period in 2025.
A key driver behind the cuts is Southwest’s push to concentrate more capacity at Nashville International Airport. The carrier’s broader retreat from its decades-old point-to-point flying model is also a factor, according to the Cirium data.
The Seven Routes Cut
Southwest will no longer fly nonstop from St. Louis to Des Moines, Iowa; Little Rock, Arkansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City; Long Beach, California; or San Jose, California, this Q3, the Cirium data show.
Four of those routes — Des Moines, Little Rock, Tulsa and Wichita — each carried 107 departures from St. Louis last Q3, with seat totals across the four ranging from 15,845 to 17,829. Oklahoma City saw one more departure, at 108, during the same period last year.
The two California routes carried far lower frequencies. Long Beach had 34 departures from St. Louis last Q3, while San Jose had just five.
Southwest said in a statement obtained by Men’s Journal via Yahoo News that it is “fully committed to the Gateway City” and looks forward to serving the market “for years to come.”
A Southwest spokesperson said in August 2025, when the March 2026 schedule was released, that the airline was “redesigning east-west connectivity in our network that has traditionally gone through St. Louis to other SWA points of strength (ICT, DSM, TUL to MDW, LIT to BNA, OKC to DAL).”
St. Louis Remains a Busy Southwest Base
Despite the cuts, St. Louis remains Southwest’s 11th-busiest base, according to Cirium. The airline has 9,945 scheduled departures from St. Louis this Q3, offering a combined 1,608,629 one-way seats.
Domestic flights account for 9,819 of those departures, or 98.73% of the total schedule. Denver leads with 610 departures this Q3, followed by Orlando with 545, Dallas Love Field with 512, Chicago Midway with 458 and Las Vegas with 433.
International service plays a smaller role, with 126 scheduled flights to foreign airports. Cancun accounts for 112 of those, followed by Montego Bay and Punta Cana with five each and San Jose del Cabo with four.
Southwest’s senior vice president of network planning, Adam Decaire, described the carrier’s broader strategy as focused on “adding choices in cities like Las Vegas, Orlando, and San Diego where the airline can give customers more options.”
Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson has said the airline intends to keep the largest point-to-point network in the industry while adding connection options on top of it.
A Fluctuating History at Lambert
Southwest’s presence in St. Louis has shifted considerably since Cirium’s records begin in 2004, when the airline scheduled 20,641 flights from the airport. That total climbed annually to a then-peak of 26,392 in 2008, dipped during the 2009 recession, then grew again past 30,000 by 2012.
After another brief pullback in 2014, Southwest’s St. Louis schedule hit a pre-pandemic high in 2019, when the airline flew 40,450 flights and 6,109,086 seats from the airport. The pandemic cut that total to 25,863 flights in 2021. The schedule then climbed back to a peak of 41,582 flights in 2025 before settling at a projected 38,631 for 2026.
Local Reaction
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer called the route reductions “an issue that impacts our city’s bottom line.”
Lambert International Airport officials said in a statement that “while we are disappointed in the loss of some of these flights, we are still grateful for the strong partnership we have with Southwest Airlines and the service the airline provides for travelers in this region.”
St. Louis resident Beth Huffman questioned the move’s benefit to the airline, saying, “How is that going to make anything better? To me, they’re going to lose business. This doesn’t help.” Southwest passenger Curtis Howard urged the carrier to reverse course, saying, “No, no, absolutely not. Keep people flying. If you’re cutting stuff down, you’re cutting employment, you’re cutting travel — you’re cutting more and more. Grow it, make it bigger.”
Part of a Broader Network Overhaul
The St. Louis cuts arrive amid a wider transformation at Southwest. The carrier ended its more than 50-year-old “Bags Fly Free” policy in 2025 and introduced assigned seating on Jan. 27, 2026, ending a roughly 50-year open-boarding system. Southwest reported record first-quarter operating revenue of $7.249 billion in 2026, along with $227 million in net income.
Nashville, meanwhile, is absorbing added capacity. Nashville is absorbing routes previously routed through St. Louis, including the Little Rock and Oklahoma City flows. As of June 2026, Southwest serves more than 120 airports across 11 countries.
Key Takeaways
- Southwest Airlines is cutting seven nonstop routes from St. Louis this Q3 2026: Des Moines, Little Rock, Tulsa, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Long Beach and San Jose.
- The cuts stem from Southwest’s shift of capacity toward Nashville and its broader pivot away from point-to-point flying.
- Louis remains Southwest’s 11th-busiest base, with 9,945 scheduled Q3 departures and 1.6 million seats.
- Louis Mayor Cara Spencer and local passengers have criticized the cuts, while Southwest says it remains committed to the market.
- The route reductions are part of a larger Southwest transformation that includes assigned seating, checked-bag fees and record Q1 2026 revenue.