The Eugene Airport welcomed its first Southwest Airline flight Sunday from Las Vegas, beginning daily service to both Las Vegas and Oakland, Calif.
After landing, the airport celebrated the airline’s addition by shooting red-, blue- and yellow-dyed water over the airplane with firetrucks as the plane rolled to the gate.
Southwest will fly three daily routes to the city from two of its largest West Coast operating bases — twice-daily service from Oakland and once-daily service from Las Vegas.
Adding service to Eugene has been a long time coming for Southwest, Andrew Watterson, Southwest’s chief operating officer told The Points Guy in an interview in April. “A lot of the cities that we’ve announced were on our wish list, but we’ve been starved for aircraft for a few years now… Now we’re able to go pretty deep in our wish list because we have ample aircraft due to the demand shortfalls of the pandemic.”
While Eugene offers some leisure activities like riverside parks and trails, Watterson told TPG that the move is designed to open a brand-new market to the carrier. Southwest doesn’t have many Rapid Rewards frequent flyer members based in the area, and there’s “a lot of new customer potential for us.”
Right now, Southwest is “under-penetrated” in Eugene. Most locals either choose a competitor — Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, United and newcomer Avelo offer service there — or drive two hours north to Portland to catch a flight.
But Southwest sees value in the community at large. There are two large schools nearby, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, which should help bolster demand. “We think the outdoor part during COVID will be short-term interest, but longer-term, the universities will provide a lot of good back and forth traffic for visitation.”
As for why Southwest chose to connect Eugene with Oakland and Las Vegas first, Watterson explained that this is the ideal “starting pattern.” With the two nonstop routes, Southwest opens up more than 30 connecting itineraries from day one. “If we see people connecting over Oakland and Vegas to a certain location, then there’ll be fodder for adding a nonstop,” he said.
Passengers included a few returning University of Oregon students, and others who were excited to use the outbound flight to connect to larger cities for work.
Kelly Owens of Albany was at the airport to fly to Chicago for a job interview, with a layover in Las Vegas. He said he looks forward to using the new direct flights to visit family members in Las Vegas.
“Being able to come to Eugene to fly out rather than drive to Portland is a much quicker drive with less traffic, so I like that a lot,” said Owens, 54.
Cathryn Stephens, the airport’s acting director, said she appreciates having Southwest added to Eugene and potentially expand its offerings in the future. She added she looks forward to the “Southwest Effect” phenomenon in which markets that Southwest enters experience a decrease in average airfares and an increase in passengers.
The airline’s addition also meant new jobs for roughly 25 people hired as ramp agents who offload bags and service the airplanes when they come in. It’s their first job in aviation, and includes a mix of part- and full-time positions, station manager George Ohanian said Sunday.
— Compiled from Eugene Register-Guard and The Points Guy reports