Southwest To Begin Year Round Service At Miami International Airport
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Travelers will soon have another option if they are flying out of Miami International Airport.
Southwest Airlines has announced it will start year-round service out of MIA later this year.
The airline already flies out of Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez called this a welcome addition to the county's largest economic engine during a time of much needed economic recovery.
One flight expert says not only will this give South Floridians more travel options, it'll make flights cheaper across all airlines.
"Scientists have studied this in other markets, they all a phenomenon that keeps repeating itself called the 'Southwest Effect'. When Southwest enters a new airport, the average fares in those airports go down by 21 percent and the reason why is they historically have been offering lower fares and many of the other airlines, in order to try and compete, have to lower their airfares as a result," said Scott Keyes, with Scott's Cheap Flights.
Keyes added that with winter coming up and the international travel restrictions, Florida might be getting a lot of visitors in the coming months and that would mean more dollars to businesses that depend on tourism to survive.
Southwest has yet to announce when the service will start or where they will be flying.
Lester Sola, the head of the Miami-Dade's aviation department, said this is one of the most significant events in the airport's 92 year history.
