Southwest Airlines® added to its California and island portfolios on Tuesday, April 7, with service launching at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California, and Princess Juliana International Airport on the island of St. Maarten. Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) is the 14th airport Southwest® serves in the Golden State, and St. Maarten marks the airline’s 10th island destination in the Caribbean and Atlantic Basin.

Sipping to Sonoma

The captain of the inaugural flight, Marc Hauptman, grew up in Santa Rosa, went to Sonoma State University, and completed his flight training at the Sonoma County airport. After years of hoping for Southwest service to his hometown, it was a joy to see this full-circle moment for the Santa Rosa community.

Inaugural service for Southwest at Santa Rosa (Sonoma County), California, connects nonstop to San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver, and Burbank, California. The San Diego and Las Vegas routes are set to operate daily, including two San Diego roundtrips on peak days. Burbank will initially operate five days per week, and Denver service on Saturdays only. Seasonal service connected to Austin is set to begin in October.

For nearly 25 years, Southwest has operated more intra-California service than any other airline in addition to offering the most available seats and daily departures in California. The airline proudly carries more Californians than any other airline.

In addition to launching service to wine country, Southwest will begin a new program called Sip & Ship, which allows Customers to bring a bit of wine country home with them at no cost. Starting April 24, Customers will be able to fly one case of wine for free from select West Coast locations, including Santa Rosa (Sonoma County).

Sunny St. Maarten

After adding St. Thomas to its list of tropical destinations in February, the airline expanded its Caribbean presence with daily service to St. Maarten, launching Tuesday between the island and Orlando International Airport. Weekend service between St. Maarten and Baltimore is scheduled to begin Saturday, April 11. Southwest is currently the other carrier offering nonstop service from those two destinations to St. Maarten.

Southwest began international service in 2014 and now serves 11 countries outside of the United States with the addition of St. Maarten. The new service at St. Maarten connects nine international countries Southwest serves to Orlando, and 10 are connected to Baltimore.

The island, known for its famed Maho Beach abutting the airport, is split almost equally between the Dutch constituent country in the southern half of the island and the French overseas collectivity in the northern portion. Visitors can travel freely between the two sides thanks to the Treaty of Concordia.