New Route of the Day 2 – Americas (11 March 2023): Southwest between San Diego and Eugene

Southwest introduced a new seasonal service between San Diego in California and Eugene in Oregon on Saturday 11 March. The 1,370-kilometre weekly service will be maintained until 2 September with 737-700 aircraft. Although Southwest is currently the only operator between the two airports, Allegiant will resume seasonal 2-weekly operations from 9 June until 13 August. Alaska Airlines will enter the route on 15 June with a daily service.

Southwest’s flight WN1639 departs San Diego at 12:35 local time, arriving in Eugene at 15:05 local time. The return service, WN1675, takes off from Eugene at 14:25 local time, arriving in San Diego at 16:35 local time.

Southwest completes Eugene expansion

The launch of the new San Diego – Eugene service completes the airline’s expansion at the Oregon airport, which has seen it recently introduce another five year-round routes including from Hollywood/Burbank, Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland and San Jose in California.

Located on the Willamette River, 80 kilometres from the Pacific Coast and some 180 kilometres south of Portland, Eugene has a population of around 170,000. Eugene Airport lies in the north-west corner of the city, around 11 kilometres from downtown. Between 2010 and 2019 passenger numbers at the airport grew by 61% from 755,000 to just over 1.2 million. Last year was the airport’s busiest, handling almost 1.6 million passengers.