Southwest Airlines now has 5 lounges in the pipeline. They are working to launch a lounge network, because competitors offer them, customers expect them, and they open up the potential for a planned new premium credit card.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan now acknowledges working to lease lounge space in Honolulu, Denver, and Nashville, even though they have not yet ‘announced lounges.’ And more are in the pipeline.
- Honolulu. Southwest agreed to take space for a 9,577 square feet lounge, and a five year lease was approved in October.
Then on January 8, 2026, the Hawaii Department of Transportation amended that prior approval and added additional space to the lounge lease (as well as granting a 12-month rent waiver conditioned on substantial space improvements).
- Nashville. Bob Jordan has named Nashville as one of the airports where Southwest is securing space. There are reports of a 30,000 square foot lounge they’ve secured, based on permit filings, in the center mezzanine area.
According to the airport, “Of all the Southwest bases they make more money in Nashville than anywhere else.” Nashville is clearly a key market for a Southwest lounge.
- Denver. Southwest is the second-largest carrier at the airport, but provides far fewer amenities than United. They have more flights out of Denver than any other city. Any lounge would presumably be in the Concourse C East expansion but I haven’t found any documents related to Southwest taking and building lounge space there.
The Southwest Airlines lounge pipeline also appears to include:
- Dallas Love Field. The airport doesn’t have any current lounge space, but is planning to build lounges there. Southwest has 90% of the gates at the airport. As the primary leasing tenant they have first position on taking the space, and it’s their headquarters airport.
- Austin. I FOIA’d the new Austin airport use and lease agreement signed at the end of 2025. Southwest is the anchor tenant for the new concourse being built And the lease has Southwest Airlines building out a 40,000 square foot lounge as part of the new development. The lease agreement lists this as a crew lounge. However a lounge of that size does not make sense primarily as a crew lounge.
Additional likely possible candidates seem to be Baltimore, Houston Hobby, San Diego, St. Louis and ideally Chicago Midway, though I just don’t know where any meaningful new lounge might go at Midway.
Southwest flew more than 18 million passengers at BWI last year, operating around 230 daily departures to 82 destinations, and BWI just opened its $520 million A/B Connector with 142,000 square feet of new construction plus 78,000 square feet of renovated space.
Houston Hobby is building a $470 million West Concourse expansion with seven new Southwest gates.
Southwest is the largest carrier in San Diego, operates out of terminal 1, and the new terminal 1 construction program includes new lounges. (I’ve reported that it’s getting an Escape lounge.)
So while I haven’t seen documents surfaced for Houston, Baltimore or elsewhere it seems likely that Southwest is pursuing additional lounge real estate beyond a clear pipeline of Honolulu, Raleigh, Denver, Dallas and Austin.
We don’t yet know what any design aesthetic or features might look like, or if a Southwest premium cobrand card might somehow piggy back on Chase lounges or Priority Pass access to launch with a larger footprint.
Good on you, Gary, for FOIA-ing. Transparency, oversight, and accountability matters, even when snooping on prospective airline lounges. I’m pleasantly surprised that WN is attempting this. I’ve had my doubts, and still remain skeptical, especially with the economic headwinds, but if they pull this off, that’s exciting. Now, for @Mike Hunt’s desired First Class… WN recliners, FTW!
as I have said, WN is on its way to becoming the next legacy/global carrier. They have the domestic network but lack first class and lounges (for now) as well as longhaul international which requires widebodies.
AS is further along in the process of becoming global but is far smaller.
WN will easily leapfrog AS as soon as it starts installing domestic first class and widebodies.
Surprised BWI wasn’t in that mix. Or maybe PHX. Yes, I think over the next decade you will see WN order 788/789s and begin to fly International as well as domestic first and business class seating. That’s where the real money is, along with potential higher income consumers for a cobranded credit card.
I can’t imagine that many people care about Southwest opening lounges across the country. WN does not have the type of clientele that fly premium. WN’s base customer is looking for cheaper flights.
But can you move to another seat in the SWA lounge without being harassed by an employee? Inquiring minds want to know…
On a side note, SWA should have started flying from BWI to LGW years ago on a cheap, high density 787-8. IMO. Bob Jordan still waiting to be told what to do next…
@Tim Dunn – Hear, hear! I couldn’t possibly agree more. My only fear, and perhaps the biggest potential mistake WN could make, would be to “half-ass” a domestic first class product. Business travelers want a first class that is properly partitioned with hot meals. A Spirit-style “big front seat” or “business lite” arrangement simply isn’t going to cut it for most of those premium consumers. They’ve got to either go full in on it, or not bother at all.
Southwest might as well go all the way in copying United, Delta, and American. There’s not much sense in going halfway (which is where they are now). It was great to have one airline doing business differently. We had a real choice. Now air travel is truly a commodity business.
@Mike Hunt — Oh baby, I just knew this would get you wettt!
@nsx at FlyerTalk — The Big 4 seem to want to eradicate all smaller players and close out the LCC segment, likely so they can further consolidate, focusing only on the 1%. That seems like a net loss to the society, but… who cares about workers and consumers in this K-shaped economy anyway.
We don’t want or need louuges, we need reasonable prices!!!
@CRS- Another take is the following. WN was THE US LCC. There were the legacy carriers with WN in its very profitable niche. ULCCs started to come and go. Legacies brought in basic economy to compete against WN and others. A number of ULCCs competed against each other and WN, to WN’s detriment. In the US the ULCC model has not produced a Ryanair or EasyJet. WN determined that the LCC niche was unsubstainable with the constant annoyance of ULCCs. WN decided to be more like the legacy3: assigned seats, bagage charges, lounges, and, maybe, real domestic F. Maybe the thought was: we can’t compete as a LCC; we must either become the first successful US ULCC or become AA/DL/UA. If you ask people here, WN moving up to be better than the lowest big3, isn’t a tough challenge, though who is the lowest big3 is up for debate. Many people loved the old WN. Many loved eat-in Pizza Huts with their lunch buffet.
@Tim and @Mike. Agreed, WN sees it future (survival?) in competing against the legacy3 and AS rather than the ULCCs. The market changed, and the niche WN so profitably held only exists in the fond memories of those who loved the old WN.
HNL -> Is WN taking over the OLD NW Worldclub/DL lounge on the lower level under the concourse? I seem to recall there being 3 lounges all together down there at one point, but 2 became staff areas.
For some reason I thought WN was at the end of the Diamondhead concourse next to United.
If you’re going to play the game of charging four times as much as cattle car/coach, you have to have a “status lounge” to cement the royalty feeling for four more inches of legroom and two across seating. Oh, and free carrying their bags in the luggage hold under every airplane.
@Tom Mariner – Oh how I *wish* domestic first was two-across seating. I mean, AA has that on their A321Ts, but typically it’s four across for all the rest. And domestic F rarely comes with lounge access in the United States (for reasons I’ve never quite understood). Also, if you’d been reading this blog regularly you’d have known that people buy up to domestic F for as little as ~$30 these days. Surely LIBIO pays you enough for that?
So what about the lounges? How about improving the seat selection options and more direct flights? There used to be direct flights between MDW and Tucson. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be that option anymore when we tried to book our flights for the summer. Also, why charge extra for choosing seats for basic economy? Whenever we book seats for basic economy to save money, middle seats are only the option.
Unfortunately none where the lounges are really needed – OAK, BUR, BWI, MDW. DEN has plenty of lounges.