Southwest Airlines has finally entered the world of red-eye flying.
The airline's first five overnight flights took off on Thursday night from Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, headed for destinations east of the Mississippi River.
Southwest greeted the launches with fanfare, handing out gift bags and commemorative cards to passengers.
For now, the airline's five daily red-eye flights connect Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando, Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville, and Phoenix to Baltimore. By June, Southwest will offer 33 overnight flights daily.
The carrier's inception of red-eye flying had been in the offing for a while, but was incorporated last year into a broader commercial plan geared toward improving financial performance, which since the pandemic has lagged far behind Delta, United and Alaska, and also behind American.
The plan also includes the introduction in 2026 of assigned seating and extra legroom seats, as well as a series of cost-cutting measures.
Southwest is touting the red-eye introduction as a way to get more utilization out of its aircraft while offering more connectivity to customers. For example, the airline said that when it begins Honolulu-Las Vegas overnight flights in April, that one daily flight will increase the number of itineraries Southwest can offer Honolulu flyers by 50% as they connect onward in the Southwest network.
Nearly 75% of Southwest flyers who are currently booked on an itinerary that includes a red-eye flight are also taking a connecting flight either before or after the red-eye, the airline said.
Southwest says that overnight flying and efforts to speed up turn times will provide the equivalent of 18 additional aircraft.
Thursday also marked the inception of Southwest's interline arrangement with Icelandair, its first such partnership in decades and another part of its new commercial plan.
Initially, the interline itineraries will be bookable only in Icelandair channels, with the shared itineraries connecting in Baltimore. The airlines will add Denver and Nashville as connecting points later this year. Southwest won't begin selling Icelandair segments in its booking channels until it adds assigned seating.