Southwest's ABQ-Kansas City run returns next year

Oct. 28—Southwest Airlines is bringing back weekday non-stop flights between Kansas City, Missouri, and Albuquerque — but not right away.

The change will go into effect on April 11.

Southwest is also adding more flights on existing routes to the Albuquerque airport next year, increasing the number of daily flights to Houston from two to three and the number of daily flights to Phoenix and Las Vegas from three to five. Southwest will also return to the pre-pandemic frequency of two flights per day for both Los Angeles and San Diego after reducing the number to one.

"The demand for travel is back," said City of Albuquerque spokesperson Daniel Jiron. "And that's reflected in these changes from Southwest."

The Kansas City route, which is now Albuquerque International Sunport's 26th non-stop flight, was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn't return for two years. After bringing back the Kansas City route, only Southwest's San Jose direct flight remains canceled at Sunport.

In June, Southwest will start non-stop flights between the two cities on Sundays as well for a total of six weekly flights.

"We're greatly encouraged by Southwest's extended schedule, as it reflects the state of our industry and the tireless efforts of our air service development team," said Richard McCurley, director of aviation for the City of Albuquerque, in a press release. "Over the past two years, we've focused our efforts on a strong comeback and will continue to work with our airline partners to bring additional flight operations to the Sunport and our community."

When the changes go into effect, the airline will be performing more weekday flights than pre-pandemic.