Palm Springs International Airport is a great airport to fly in and out of, if you are lucky enough to find a flight to where you need to go and you can afford it. Flying out of Palm Springs is the preference of most Coachella Valley locals, who don’t need to sign a pledge to show that they would rather not have an hour or two drive home from LAX or Ontario after a flight but do it anyway because it’s just so much cheaper. One way to get cheaper flights would be to add Southwest flights to the airport’s roster (seeing as how the airline does wonders to lower not just its own, but everyone’s fares), but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
While Southwest added plenty of California routes last year, most of those were focused on the San Jose and Sacramento area. And, according to the Desert Sun, the airline is not considering adding anything into or out of Palm Springs.
“While we never rule out any city, we have no current plans to add Palm Springs to our route map,” a spokesperson for the airline said in an email.
The Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau jointly works with PSP on air service development, and its staff members have met with Southwest officials. But it may take a while before the airline decides to come to the city.
“We would love to have Southwest in the market. We have shared data with them, we have reached out to them,” CVB President/CEO Scott White said. “But it’s really gonna be up to them when they are ready to consider Palm Springs as an additional market in California.”
What? Get me them on the phone and I will set up a meeting to convince them. Perhaps they will be easily convinced after one or seven cocktails at Paul Bar or Bootlegger Tiki.
