Southwest to fly to Belize; fighting for their rights to fly international

Southwest Airlines is seeking the rights to fly from Houston's Hobby Airport to six international destinations in the Caribbean and Central America.

The carrier says it filed an application on Thursday with the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin flights from Houston Hobby to four destinations in Mexico -- Cancun, Los Cabos, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta -- as well as to San Jose, Costa Rica, and Belize City, Belize. Southwest has already announced plans for Saturday-only Houston-Aruba service, which is set to begin March 7.

Belize would become a new destination for Southwest. The country would become seventh on Southwest's route map and the carrier's 96th destination overall. Southwest already has announced plans to fly from other cities to the four Mexican destinations and to San Jose, Costa Rica.

TODAY IN THE SKY: Debut of Southwest's international flying goes smoothly (July 2, 2014)
TODAY IN THE SKY: Southwest tabs Puerto Vallarta as fourth Mexico destination (Nov. 10, 2014)
TODAY IN THE SKY: Southwest: Costa Rica is newest international destination (Sept. 12, 2014)

As for Houston, the city's Hobby Airport has primarily been a domestic airport since the opening of the bigger Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport in 1969. But Southwest – by far the busiest airline at Hobby – launched its first international routes earlier this year and has said it would like to develop Hobby into one of its international bases. The carrier is in the midst of a $156 million project for a five-gate international concourse at Hobby that would allow international flights.

"We're building our first-ever international terminal project to give Houstonians, visitors to Houston, and our connecting customers exceptional value and legendary customer service in international markets for which there is great demand," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly says in astatement.

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"Service to Mexico will be the cornerstone of our international operation at Hobby and the four cities we are announcing today provide exciting travel and business options for consumers," Kelly adds. "Adding Belize to the Southwest network and growing our Costa Rica service continues our expansion to international destinations where our People and consumer-friendly policies can deliver as no other airline can."

Southwest's Aruba service can operate without the international facility since passengers flying to the United States from Aruba clear U.S. customs and immigration there as part of the "pre-clearance" program.

TODAY IN THE SKY: U.S., Mexico to end limits on transborder airline routes

For the Mexico routes, however, it will be interesting to see how the U.S. DOT handlesSouthwest's request for the authority to operate the Mexico routes. The current aviation agreement between the United States and Mexico restricts the number of carriers that can fly on any given U.S-Mexico city-pair. The countries recently announced plans to phase out those restrictions beginning in 2016, but the restrictive and somewhat complicated rules remain in effect through the end of 2015. Southwest has proposed that routes between Houston and Mexico would begin in October, before the restrictions end.

Under the existing U.S.-Mexico agreement, most routes between the nations are restricted to two U.S. airlines. Some allow three, and there are various exceptions. Complicating the agreement -- at least as far as Houston is concerned -- is that the pact designates Houston as a single market, meaning service from both Hobby and Bush Intercontinental cumulatively count toward the airline cap on routes to Mexico.

Currently, less than the maximum-number of airlines are flying on the Houston-Cancun and Houston-Puerto Vallarta routes, likely clearing the way for Southwest there.

But unless the DOT and its Mexican counterpart agree to waive the nations' restrictions early, Southwest will have to win out against at least one airline from a set of rivals that includes of United, Spirit and two of United's regional United Express affiliates.

United and affiliates SkyWest and ExpressJet already fly some of the routes from Houston Bush Intercontinental. And ultra low-cost carrier Spirit recently announced its intention to flybetween Houston Bush Intercontinental and Los Cabos (as well as Cancun). In its filing, Southwest appeared to take aim at the routes with rights held by United and its United Express affiliates.

"In these markets, service by ExpressJet and SkyWest under the United Express brand means that two U.S. carrier designations are being used on behalf of one U.S. airline,"Southwest said in its filing with the DOT. "The United Express service is marketed, distributed, priced and otherwise entirely controlled by United to complement its mainline service in those markets. United and its partner carriers coordinate, rather than compete, with one another, and together utilize dual designations to provide consumers with a single carrier option."

Southwest touted its proposed service, saying it would be "an independent, new entrant carrier on these routes and would provide year-round, daily, large-jet service offering consumers low fares, competition and new travel options."

"Given that Southwest is now prepared to enter and compete in the Houston-(Mexico City) and Houston-(Los Cabos) markets, there is no justification for allowing United and its partner carriers to continue to hold dual authorities in these markets that would block that competition," Southwest added.