Southwest Airlines will launch daily, year-round San Diego–Puerto Vallarta flights on March 5, 2026. The service debuts alongside the opening of San Diego International Airport’s rebuilt Terminal 1, with Southwest calling out San Diego as a growth focus as the facility comes online. In this batch of San Diego additions, Puerto Vallarta is the only Mexico destination.
The timing matters. SAN’s New T1 opens its first phase in late September 2025, adding 19 gates, new road access, and a large parking plaza designed to ease curbside congestion. That upgrade is meant to support more reliable gate access for carriers like Southwest as schedules grow through 2026.
Why Southwest is betting on PVR from SAN
Puerto Vallarta has held its ground through uneven U.S. demand this year. Operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP) reported a modest year-over-year increase in PVR passengers in July 2025 and small month-to-month swings across the summer. Year-to-date, GAP has described Puerto Vallarta as resilient, even as some U.S. flows softened. A daily San Diego link gives the destination another steady West Coast pipeline.
Competition for the city pair is real. Alaska Airlines already sells nonstop San Diego–Puerto Vallarta, with schedules concentrated around the fall-winter peak; its booking pages show continued SAN–PVR availability into late 2025. Southwest’s entry adds capacity and day-to-day frequency, which often pressures fares and broadens options for travelers who prefer each airline’s network or loyalty program.
San Diego will be the seventh nonstop gateway that Southwest offers to Puerto Vallarta, joining Austin, Denver, Houston (Hobby), Orange County, Phoenix, and Sacramento. Several of those links operate daily in peak periods, and many now run year-round. The San Diego flight extends that network to another major West Coast origin with strong leisure demand.
Southwest framed the San Diego adds—Eugene, Maui, Portland, Puerto Vallarta, and Seattle—as part of a broader Spring 2026 schedule extension. The airline is also layering Saturday-only SAN flights to Bozeman and Spokane for ski season. All of those pieces reflect a strategy to seize peak travel dates while stitching in daily mainstays like PVR.
What it means for travelers on the Pacific coast
For Southern Californians, the route reduces the need to connect through Phoenix, Los Angeles, or the Bay Area, and it puts a daily PVR option under Southwest’s brand from a city where the airline is the largest operator. For Puerto Vallarta, it strengthens access from a high-income metro with deep leisure ties to Jalisco and Nayarit. Expect the flight to be a reliable winter performer; the real test will be summer, when West Coast sun markets compete with Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
San Diego’s New T1 eliminates a long-standing growth bottleneck for gate space and curb access. The new entrance roadway opened this summer to peel tens of thousands of daily vehicles off Harbor Drive, and the parking plaza expansion finished in June. Those pieces set the table for Southwest’s 2026 additions to run with fewer operational compromises.
As the first phase of New T1 ramps, airport officials expect the larger concourse and landside improvements to smooth peak-hour congestion. That’s good news for any daily international departure, especially one aimed at families and weekenders who prize predictable timing.
