Southwest, American adding Las Vegas flights for Super Bowl

At least two airlines serving Harry Reid International Airport will be adding commercial flights to and from Las Vegas to accommodate Super Bowl crowds.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the market leader at Reid, will have extra flights Feb. 9-10, the Friday and Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday, and Feb. 12, the Monday after the game.

American Airlines, which routinely offers additional flights to Las Vegas for CES, is having fun with its flight numbers, tying special Super Bowl flights to and from Kansas City to Chiefs jersey numbers and the year of Taylor Swift’s birth, 1989.

Southwest is offering 11 additional flights beyond its normal Las Vegas service from Kansas City, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose on days preceding the game and seven additional flights from those destinations on the Monday after.

Southwest will have three additional flights from Kansas City International Airport on Friday and one on Saturday for a total of seven nonstop options on Friday and four on Saturday. On Monday, there will be four additional nonstop flights for a total of eight.

Southwest will have even more options to and from the Bay Area.

On Friday and Saturday, it will have one additional daily flight from San Francisco International Airport for a total of four; one additional flight from Oakland International for a total of 11 on Friday, with a total of seven on Saturday; and one additional daily flight Friday and Saturday from San Jose Mineta International Airport, for a total of 11 Friday and eight Saturday.

Extra flights from Las Vegas are scheduled by Southwest on Monday.

The airline will add one additional flight to San Francisco for a total of four that day; one additional flight to Oakland for a total of 11; and one additional flight to San Jose for a total of 11.

Depending on what type of aircraft Southwest uses on the routes, the additional flights will provide up to 1,870 extra seats coming into the market.

The added American Airlines flights are unusual for the airline, the fifth busiest at Reid, because it doesn’t normally serve Las Vegas from Kansas City or from any of the major Bay area airports.

Flight 1989 is scheduled to run twice from Kansas City to Las Vegas on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10, both departing at 12:30 p.m. local time. And after the game, Flight 87 — Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s jersey number — leaves Las Vegas for Kansas City at 12:20 a.m. local time on Feb. 12.

“You could say that after tonight’s games, we are in our football era, and we are thrilled to provide additional direct flights from Kansas City to Las Vegas,” American Airlines said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “To our customers who are huge sports fans, look what you made us do.”

It wasn’t just Swift and Kelce whose numbers are now flight numbers. There are three Flight 15 offerings, which happens to be quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ jersey. Flight 15 from Kansas City to Las Vegas is on Feb. 8. The same flight number, this time going from Vegas to Kansas City, is offered Feb. 12 and Feb. 13.

There’s also a Flight 1521, combining the numbers of Mahomes and safety Mike Edwards. That one is running from Kansas City to Las Vegas once.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X. The Associated Press contributed to this story.