Southwest Airlines (WN) has removed every scheduled flight between Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas and Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) in San José, Costa Rica. The change appears in the carrier’s latest schedule submission to aviation data provider Cirium Diio that was first cited by Simple Flying. It is rare for a carrier to abandon a route before the first flight, but it does happen.
The route was already running behind plan. Cirium data shows Southwest was due to start the service on November 1, a date pushed back from an original October 1 launch. With that second start date now scrapped too, Las Vegas travelers hoping for a direct link to Costa Rica are left without a timeline.
Why The Las Vegas-Costa Rica Route Was A Big Deal
The LAS-SJO service was not an ordinary route addition. It was set to become Southwest’s longest international service by both distance and time, the first-ever nonstop link between the two airports, and Las Vegas’s third-largest unserved market in Latin America behind São Paulo and Buenos Aires. It would also have stood alone in one other respect.
With departure from Nevada scheduled for 11:55 PM, LAS-SJO was to be Southwest’s only international route operated overnight. According to Simple Flying, covering 2,297 nautical miles (4,254 km) each way, the flight’s maximum block time in its opening months was set at just shy of six-and-a-half hours. That length would have edged out every other international route the airline flies today.
A Two-Aircraft Split That Rarely Happens
Southwest’s plan for the route relied on an unusual mix of aircraft types rather than one jet flying the round trip. One specific aircraft would have operated the outbound leg, while a different frame flew the inbound sector, a flow pattern that is common across Southwest’s network.
The two aircraft types earmarked for the route were:
- Boeing 737-700: The 137-seat jet was set to fly LAS-SJO, likely chosen for the high frequency and because the market was brand new.
- Boeing 737 MAX 8: The larger, 175-seat, more fuel-efficient jet was scheduled to operate nearly every return flight from Costa Rica back to LAS, an imbalance that is fairly uncommon in Southwest’s scheduling.
One theory for the split is that the airline wanted to build up demand and loads before switching to a bigger jet on both directions. Southwest has not confirmed this reasoning, and the carrier has been contacted for comment on why the route was pulled entirely. It remains unclear whether the cancellation is permanent or another postponement.
Southwest Has Flown to Costa Rica for More Than a Decade
Costa Rica is not new territory for Southwest. The airline has served the country since March 2015, less than a year after its first international flights launched on July 1, 2014, with the earliest San José routes flown from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU).
The network expanded steadily from there. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) joined the San José map in 2017 but was dropped in 2020, while Denver International Airport (DEN) followed in 2023, Orlando International Airport (MCO) in 2024, and Nashville International Airport (BNA) in 2026. A second Costa Rican gateway, Liberia, has its own history.
Southwest began flying to Liberia in November 2015 from Houston and Baltimore, added Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in 2017 and Denver in 2021, and will add Nashville flights to Liberia in February 2027; the Los Angeles service ended in 2017.
The country has proven to be solid, if unspectacular, traffic for Southwest. Between March 2015 and April 2026, the US Department of Transportation recorded 2.7 million Southwest passengers traveling to or from Costa Rica, split between 1.6 million at San José and 1.1 million at Liberia, with San José flights running slightly fuller at 83.4% of seats filled compared with 80.1% for Liberia.
How This Fits Southwest’s Wider International Retreat
The scrapped Las Vegas route is not an isolated decision. Southwest has been trimming its international map for over a year as part of a broader financial overhaul that followed pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which took five board seats in October 2024. According to a strategy review of the airline’s schedule changes, the carrier is targeting roughly $1.8 billion in additional annual earnings, and thin, low-yield international leisure routes have been among the first cuts.
Southwest’s chief operating officer, Andrew Watterson, described the shift as a repositioning rather than a withdrawal, saying the airline would “still have the largest point-to-point network in the industry” even as it adds connecting options at hubs like Denver, Nashville, and Chicago Midway. Eleven international routes were removed earlier in 2026, including long-standing links from Chicago O’Hare and Baltimore.
Yet the picture is not one of pure contraction. Las Vegas itself gained three new international routes on June 4, 2026, to Cancún, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta, and the airport separately picked up a new nonstop to Hilo, Hawaii, later in the year. The pattern suggests Southwest is willing to grow in shorter, higher-demand leisure markets while pulling back from longer, thinner ones such as the Costa Rica overnight service.
What Comes Next for Southwest’s International Map
Southwest still has sizable international ambitions on paper. Between August 2026 and March 2027, the airline plans flights to 14 airports outside the United States, including Aruba, Cancún, Grand Cayman, Havana, Liberia, Puerto Vallarta, and Punta Cana, with Cancún set to be the most-served destination. Average international departures in that window are projected to rise 14% compared with the same period a year earlier, and daily international departures will range from 20 to as many as 102 flights, a first for the carrier.
Whether San José rejoins that map from Las Vegas, and when, is now an open question. For now, travelers who were tracking the route will need to keep connecting through one of Southwest’s other Costa Rica gateways, or wait to see if the airline revives the plan.