Examining Southwest Airlines' top five internal routes from Oakland by seat availability

San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, formerly known as Oakland International Airportis one of several Bay Area airports with commercial service. Due to its location across the Bay from San Francisco, there isn't much service, especially international. Southwest Airlines dominates the airport with almost five times as many flights as the second largest airline.

Southwest operated more than 5,300 round-trip flights in November, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. Most of these flights are short, especially on the West Coast and Southwest of the United States. The airline's seat capacity is just over 840,000.

1 Harry Reid International Airport

84,383 seats

The busiest route from Oakland is to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS). Data shows 264 flights are scheduled from Oakland to Vegas and another 264 on the way back. There are 84,383 seats available in the city pair.

In November 2003, Southwest connected OAK and LAS, operating more flights than in 2024. According to Cirium, 539 flights were scheduled in 2003. At that time, Southwest operated smaller aircraft and the seating capacity was 73,063 seats, less than today.

Southwest has the largest market share on this route, but competes with Spirit Airlines. Spirit will offer up to four daily roundtrip flights in November, with an average of 176 seats per departure. There are a total of 224 flights and 39,424 flights.

2 San Diego International Airport

79,777 seats

The way to San Diego International Airport (SAN) is the second largest airport, just behind Las Vegas. In November there are 527 flights between the two cities, 264 to San Diego and 263 in the opposite direction. The number of seats available on this route is almost 80,000, 79,777.

In 2003, Southwest's flight operations to San Diego were significantly larger than they are today. Data shows there were 867 flights scheduled this month, up to 16 daily round trips. The airline averaged 133.1 seats per departure, for a total of 115,359 seats.

Like Las Vegas, Spirit is also Southwest's only competitor from San Diego, offering a daily flight most of the month. The ultra-low-cost carrier deploys its Airbus A320 and A320neos to San Diego. There are 66 Spirit flights scheduled for November and 11,616 seats available.

3 Hollywood Burbank Airport

69,498

The next three routes on this list are to Los Angeles area airports, starting with Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR). Located north of Los Angeles, this airport offers easy access to Hollywood and Burbank, as well as surrounding areas such as the San Fernando Valley, Glendale, and more. Southwest has 486 round-trip flights, 243 in each direction, with a total of 69,498 seats.

As in 2024, Burbank was the Southwest's third busiest route from Oakland in 2003. This year the airline operated up to fourteen daily round-trip flights and was able to carry more than 3,700 people. A total of 791 flights and 105,007 seats were available.

4 Los Angeles International Airport

65,232

Next comes Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), one of the busiest in the United States and home to a significant portion of Southwest's operations. In November, Southwest will offer 200 flights in each direction. With the use of all Boeing 737 variants, the airline has 65,232 seats.

In 2003, Southwest's primary route was from Oakland to LAX, and the difference between LAX and its second-largest route was significant. In November, there were 1,174 flights between OAK and LAX, up to 22 daily round trips. This was a total of 158,048 seats.

Today, Southwest competes with Spirit, but in 2003 it faced competition from United Airlines. Southwest dominated market share 21 years ago, but United had a significant share. Data shows United had six daily roundtrip flights, including flights from SkyWest Airlines and Mesa Airlines. In 2003, United had 357 flights and 28,680 seats.

5 John Wayne Airport

55,770 seats

Rounding out the top 5 is a flight to John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County. SNA is also close to Los Angeles and is perfect for visiting places like Disneyland or the beaches near the airport like Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and more. 390 return flights with a total of 55,770 seats are planned for November.

Southwest's activities toward SNA in 2003 were at a similar level to today. This year, the airline offered up to eight daily round-trip flights to Orange County Airport. Data shows that 447 flights were scheduled at the city airport and 58,689 seats were available.

In 2003, only two airlines operated flights between Oakland and John Wayne: Southwest and Alaska Airlines. In November 2003, there were a total of 713 flights between the two airports, 266 of which were operated by Alaska Airlines. At that time, the airline used its Boeing 737-700 and 737-400 for flight operations that included five daily round-trip flights.