Knoxville's airport will reveal a new airline. Could it be Southwest, JetBlue or Spirit?

A new airline and a new destination are coming to McGhee Tyson at a time of incredible growth and change for the airport.

The announcement coming Feb. 6 coincides with the Knoxville airport's fast-growing passenger traffic. With 2.81 million passengers, 2023 was the airport's busiest year on record.

It's expanding offerings, too. A new $180 million, six-story parking garage will add 3,500 more spaces in 2026, and the airport will add six additional gates in a terminal expansion expected to be completed by 2029.

The airline news will be announced Feb. 6 at a 10:30 a.m. event in the terminal. You can join us live by watching the stream below once it begins.

A media advisory teasing the announcement said the new airline would add a new destination to the airport's lineup.

Attracting a new airline means the airport can convince more passengers to fly out of Knoxville instead of going to Nashville or Atlanta.

The airport is waiting for Feb. 6 to say which airline is coming.

Will McGhee Tyson get Southwest Airlines?

Knoxville's airport offers nonstop flights to 27 destinations on five airlines: Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier and United. Most of its flights are through Allegiant, which made Knoxville a hub in 2018, and nine of its destinations are offered only seasonally.

Southwest Airlines tops the wish list, though the airline has experienced delays in delivery of new planes, which could also delay a possible introduction to Knoxville. Airport leaders have courted Southwest for years, making the case that Knoxville would be a great new market for the beloved budget carrier.

Representatives of the airline have even visited the airport to check it out.

"We know that they’re interested; we just don’t know when that’s going to be,” Patrick Wilson, president of the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, told Knox News in 2023. “We are in continuous contact in promoting and reminding Southwest about the potential of this market, and they’re very good to have time for us and to listen to us on a regular basis.”

Southwest placed a new crew base at Nashville International Airport last August, investing in Knoxville's much larger neighbor. McGhee Tyson outpaced Nashville and all other Tennessee markets in passenger growth rate last year.

Southwest's fleet is made up exclusively of Boeing 737s, a model that has faced manufacturing delays that could last years.

In 2019, Southwest grounded its Boeing 737 Max jets after two deadly crashes on other airlines led to a nationwide grounding and investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. The planes returned to service in 2021.

Southwest does not fly Boeing 737 Max 9 jets, which are now under FAA investigation after a door blew out in midair on an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5.

No flights from Knoxville are on Max 9 jets, an airport spokesperson said in January.

Could Knoxville be getting another budget airline?

The key to McGhee Tyson's recovery from the pandemic has been low-cost airlines like Allegiant and Frontier, which have grown faster than the so-called "Big Three": American, Delta and United. As more passengers seek cheap domestic vacations, they have turned to budget airlines.

It would make sense for McGhee Tyson to secure another budget airline, perhaps Spirit or JetBlue. If that were the case, the airport could see more destinations added from the new airline as time goes on.

When a current airline adds a new destination, like Allegiant expanding its service to Orlando last November, the airport does not host an announcement event.

Spirit and JetBlue are feuding with the federal government, after the U.S. Justice Department prevented JetBlue from buying its smaller competitor for $3.8 billion. A federal court will hear the airlines' appeal in June after a federal district judge sided with the government and blocked the merger, saying it broke antitrust law.

In the aviation world, JetBlue is considered a "hybrid" airline, along with Alaskan Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. The three are not as cheap as Frontier or Spirit and not as big as the dominant U.S. carriers.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: McGhee Tyson Airport to name new airline, destination