Southwest Begins Service between Boston Logan and Philadelphia

Southwest Airlines has begun nonstop service between Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

Initially, Southwest Airlines is operating five daily nonstops between the two cities. These new flights come in addition to the airline’s existing service between other Boston-area airports and PHL: four daily nonstops to/from T. F. Green International Airport in Providence, Rhode Island (PVD) and PHL; and four daily nonstops to/from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire (MHT) and PHL.

On August 14, the carrier will add three more BOS-PHL daily nonstops to its schedule, bringing the total to eight daily nonstops to/from Boston Logan and PHL. To accommodate Southwest’s rapid growth in Boston, Massport, which owns and operates Logan International, built an additional gate at the airline’s current location in Terminal E. Southwest now operates three gates at Logan.

In addition to Southwest Airlines' other environmental initiatives and its testing of a specially outfitted Boeing 737-700 'green plane', all of the airline's 737s eventually will have blended winglets. These reduce drag on the aircraft while it is flying and thus cut fuel burn and CO2 emissions by as much as 7 per cent during a flight

Southwest says it  has brought low fares to the PHL-BOS route where it previously had none. Prior to the carrier’s announcement of service to PHL from Boston, the cheapest advance-purchase fare was well over $1,000 roundtrip, according to Southwest. Southwest’s initial introductory fare back in February was $59 one-way, and the airline claims to continue to be the low-fare leader as the new service launches.

Southwest Airlines’ low fares are available only at www.southwest.com.