Southwest Airlines plans to start nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and San Diego International Airport (SAN) on November 21, 2026, according to schedule data reported in mid-September and summarized by Deep Arrival on September 24. The carrier will operate the corridor five times weekly with Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on both directions of the city pair.
Westbound flight WN2843 is filed to leave Fort Lauderdale at 10:50 a.m. and arrive in San Diego at 1:25 p.m. local time after about 6 hours 35 minutes. Eastbound WN3056 is filed to depart San Diego at 9:25 a.m. and reach Fort Lauderdale at 5:10 p.m. local after about 5 hours 45 minutes. Because the route is five-weekly rather than daily, exact travel dates matter for whether the nonstop is available on a given day of the week.
A Southwest spokesperson had already told the Palm Beach Post in July that San Diego service from Fort Lauderdale would begin in November as part of a broader FLL growth package that also named Albany, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Providence and San Antonio. The September Cirium-based filings, as reported by Simple Flying and InsideFlyer on September 17 and relayed by Deep Arrival, add the November 21 start date, flight numbers and block times that travelers can actually price against connecting options.
Southwest is rostering an all-economy 737 MAX 8 on every frequency. There is no premium cabin to buy up into on a coast-to-coast daytime sector, so boarding position and seat selection become the main comfort levers for a trip that can stretch past six hours westbound. JetBlue is scheduled to begin daily Airbus A321 service with Mint on San Diego–Fort Lauderdale on November 19, two days earlier, giving travelers a premium alternative on the same city pair. Alaska also competes on the broader California–Florida corridor with connecting or alternate products depending on the day of travel.
For Southwest, the route extends a western network already dense at SAN into South Florida without forcing a connection through a mid-continent hub. For Fort Lauderdale, it adds another long thin leisure and visiting-friends-and-relatives link as the airport absorbs post-Spirit capacity shifts across Florida. Schedules remain subject to change before launch; travelers should confirm times and aircraft on Southwest’s site closer to departure day.
Shoppers watching low-cost coast-to-coast flying should compare total trip time against one-stop fares and against JetBlue’s Mint product if a lie-flat seat matters more than the lowest base fare. The news itself is narrow and concrete: a dated start, a named aircraft type, five weekly frequencies, and published flight numbers on FLL–SAN that turn a summer outline into a winter booking target for leisure and visiting-friends traffic.
Schedules and aircraft assignments can change before the first operating day.
Sources: Deep Arrival (Sep 24, 2026) citing Simple Flying / Cirium and InsideFlyer (Sep 17, 2026); Palm Beach Post Southwest FLL growth comments (July 2026) as cited.
Comments
Loading comments…